John Cronin BOP Regional Council Chairman www.envbop.govt.nz

On September 15 this week, as The Weekend Sun went to print, the local government elected members and their chief executives will have been meeting together.

The theme is Working Together.

This is unusual, because it has not happened before. What is usual, is for the councillors of each council to discuss issues of governance between themselves. It is usual for the mayors and the chair of the regional council to discuss issues with the chief executives, but all the governance together – that is unusual.

The issues are mainly relative to the council boundaries ie. Tauranga, Western Bay, Rotorua, Whakatane, Kawerau, Opotiki and ourselves – the regional council.

But the issues overlap; the global financial crisis does not respect council boundaries and the economic downturns affect us all.

The New Zealand Government has an ambitious growth agenda for our country. Here in the Bay of Plenty, we want to play our part in the growth of New Zealand, but we also want to ‘capture much more than our share' – we want to make this region the most prosperous in New Zealand, all within an affordable rates regime.

As I noted earlier, this has not happened in this form anywhere else in New Zealand. Auckland had to get special legislation to amalgamate to get them to work together. It happens here because we already have a reputation of working together, as of course we should. This has already been acknowledged by central government and the progress – particularly roading – is clearly evident.

The short addresses may vary from those listed here, but the scope of the issues may be of interest to you; our constituents.

Mayor Crosby – Tauranga: Smart Growth, Infrastructure and Spatial Planning.

Mayor Paterson – Western Bay: Shared Services, kiwifruit issues, the Psa outbreak. Mayor Bonne – Whakatane: Growth issues around Whakatane, roading route security.

Mayor Forbes – Opotiki: Aquaculture and Eastern issues.

Mayor Campbell – Kawerau: Kawerau issues and geothermal energy.

Mayor Sinclair – South Waikato: The effects of the cycling network from the Waikato.

Mayor Winters – Rotorua: The Lakes, tourism.

Chairman Cronin – Bay of Plenty Regional Council: Economic Growth within a Spatial Planning framework, the effect of Auckland.

The Hon. Tony Ryall, Minister of Health is to be the sole guest speaker.

Tauranga Going Forward

It is perhaps reflective to look back at Tauranga and our region 20 years ago. The region of today has really seen a huge level of progress.

Perhaps this meeting will generate ‘a go forward' for the next 20 years.

All of our councils are in the planning stages for the next 10 years. This meeting, at this time, we hope is a real positive action of working together for a better community – and by working together we all can be part of a better Bay of Plenty.

Within the current global financial crisis, it is important to be realistic, but positive and always remember that we work for you and plan within boundaries that are affordable.
If you have a view on this or any other local government issue, I would be pleased to receive your comments.

I invite you to email johncronin@xtra.co.nz