Cr Bill Faulkner Faulkners Corner www.sunlive.co.nz

As a community we have a lot to thank ratepayers for even though the hapless individual ratepayer's only input is through the annual plan and the elected members.

We also have a lot to thank TrustPower electricity consumers for through the Tauranga Electricity Consumers Trust (TECT).

TECT, along with Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Tauranga City, have provided TECT Park a 1700ha approx park up Pyes Pa Road.

It's for all sorts of recreation that has been forced out of residential environs or had no permanent base at all.

At a user group forum meeting this week it was impressive to see the initiative and commitment of a large variety of users as they discussed matters common to everyone involved.

TECT Park has had some unfortunate unwarranted and unnecessary publicity recently and it is heartening to see this now appears to be resolved.

TECT also committed significant funding along with ratepayers for the new TECT Arena at Baypark.

Contrary to daily media reports this new facility has come in at well under its $41 million budget.

We know it's a stunning success because so far it hasn't been bagged by the media – just kidding!

The point of all this is that it is a demonstration of what can be achieved when a community pools its financial resources and takes the initiative to help itself instead of leaving it to ‘someone else'.

Remember the adage from yesteryear that if you want something done properly then do it yourself?

Smartgrowth lost track

The three year/10 Year Plan process continues with all-day meetings. These can be quite demanding on elected members as we grapple with a wide variety of subjects in the course of the day. As with the annual plan/budget each topic gets debated and a decision reached for a draft and consultation process.

The ongoing problem here is that the sum of all these democratic decisions exceeds the financial capacity of ratepayers.

So then you have to go back and make cuts to what has already been agreed and that is an extremely difficult process to get agreement on.

I have long advocated that a much better process is for a figure to be agreed of a total budget before individual budgets are discussed – then it is already apparent that a lot of work, services, amenities and facilities won't be able to be done within a given time frame. As has often been noted in this column, we now face at best, a lengthy term of financial consolidation and at worst a drop across the board in some levels of service.

We carried on too long with the Smartgrowth formula which was concocted during a time of extraordinary growth. We could have paced it with annual reviews that should have recognised that growth was plummeting. So in this three year/10 Year Plan there is the unexpected factor that growth hasn't paid for growth and what will be done about in into the future. We've already budgeted some $30 million into the future for uncollected growth development contributions that will have to be picked up by ratepayers.

Concerns to be heard

So this week some topics are open space priorities, sludge disposal, roading re-seals, street lighting renewals, reserve management plans, vegetation and open space strategy, amongst other heady subjects like ‘Approach to Strategy Policies' and ‘Proposed Amendments to Rates Remission Policy'.

I'll report back on the outcomes next week, but if council is serious about curbing the insatiable appetite of the big money munching machine then there will be some significant issues for you to consider and comment on through the consultative process. Things like reducing some roading resealing to chip seal.

Other things like sludge disposal from the wastewater plants we have to rely on professional advice, but taking the line of least cost seems logical.

Water: who should pay?

One topic bound to create plenty of discussion is the price of water. It's complex. Council is only able to recoup the actual cost of water – ie. no profit, surplus or cross subsidisation and that's how it must be. But 70 per cent of the cost of water is in the capital tied up in plants and infrastructure. Only 30 per cent of the cost is in the actual production and delivery of water to you. Because you have done your bit and reduced your water consumption/wastage, some $2 million has been under collected to date so this has to be addressed. There are many options available ranging from a blanket per cubic metre increase to a stepped tariff system where the more you use on a percentage basis, the more it costs. In tandem with this is the ongoing proposal to charge wastewater on a percentage basis of your water consumption. At present there is a uniform or constant charge for every residential ratepayer. This seems unfair, in that like water consumption, a person on their own makes significantly less demand than a family. But there are many sides of the debate with no right or wrong answers. It all depends on the individual's point of view.

This week's mindbender highlights why you should never be blinded by experts: 'Radio has no future, x-rays are clearly a hoax, the aeroplane is scientifically impossible.” – Royal Society President Lord Kelvin 1897-99.