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

At council this week elected members considered a long list of assets for possible sale.

The meeting was one of the very few held in public excluded mode – the reasons for this are self evident.

Council wishes to maximise its return on assets to repay debt.

Once a list of possible sales is finalised it will be included in the three year/Ten Year Plan for your consideration and consultation.

The list will not include the likes of water/wastewater supply, stormwater and other essential services. It is property that is surplus to requirements.

Footing the bill

As a utilities provider and service administrator council/ratepayers should not be in the business of holding property without strategic purpose.

As time goes by circumstances do change and the organisation needs to change with it.

Some will no doubt tout the sale of this or that as ‘selling the family silver'.

Others will see it as a pragmatic approach to a problem that has mounted over the years as successive councils succumbed to the ‘wants, needs and deserves' mentality that ran up some of the debt – on (in my view) non essentials.

So like an entrepreneur who borrows too much to buy more, you have to sell some of those assets to lower debt to a serviceable level.

In this case, this debt is a major cost to TCC ratepayers and the intention is to make significant cuts to debt with the hoped for and anticipated disposal of Route K/Pyes Pa bypass and sale of assets; $100 million is the target.

I can't see that being reached.

As noted in previous columns it will take big tummy muscles from some elected members to take the hard decisions when their favourite wheelbarrow comes up.

Or they succumb to local interest pressure groups.

The questions to be asked are: Where else is the money to come from? And are ratepayers prepared to pay more and more in rates?

Time to sell

There are patches of property all over the city that provide no direct (or in some cases, indirect) benefit to ratepayers and should be sold in a timely and orderly fashion.

This is not a ‘fire sale' or desperation.

It will be, if approved, a well organised rationalisation, re-organisation and repositioning of council assets to the betterment and advantage of all Tauranga ratepayers – long overdue in my opinion.

Good relief at the wreck

Good news on the subject of the wreck of the Rena on Astrolabe Reef off Motiti Island.

The even better news is the dedication and commitment by volunteers in the clean up.

Well done Tauranga. The salvors are doing an excellent job in the circumstances. Working on a 21 degree angle, underwater in some cases, with an ocean swell pounding onto the reef is not easy.

Criticism levelled by people who should know better, or worse, don't know at all and published in the media is unhelpful.

Boo to Rena scaremongers

It's hard to believe those in the tourist industry featured in the media predicting doom and gloom with associated classic negative photo, complete with scowl and arms folded across their chests. Talk about shoot yourself in the foot. Imagine the reaction from a potential holidaymaker to the Bay from inland and/or the rest of the world reading those articles. The way I see things is that it will be business as usual come Christmas.

That is if the restaurants, cafes and accommodation can cope with the influx of Rena workers plus the holidaymakers.

Blame where blame's due

The authorities are doing a good job since they got up and running handling the consequences of the oil spill.

Had there been prior knowledge of this disaster we could have all been salvage experts well in advance.

Another real challenge will be getting the containers off.

Lifting a 40 tonne container on a 21 degree angle with bent locking pins will be a mission; and then cutting up a large ship 13 miles offshore in the rolling blue ocean.

In all likelihood it will eventually break in two where the stern is unsupported.

Focus needs to remain on the cause of this disaster – that is, in my opinion, the people in charge of the Rena when it hit the reef.

Already attention is being diverted by media elsewhere to authorities and agencies who are only reacting to a situation not of their making.

To this end there is significant disquiet and displeasure at the ongoing coverage by the daily print media over some aspects of their reporting. I agree.

Sure, it's a matter of reporting what's happening, but there is the choice of reporting the bottle is either half full or half empty.

There are murmurings of action against the negativity, but to what effect remains to be seen.

The tabloid type headlines and sensationalism do the papers no credit and certainly don't help the Bay.

Building progress

The long hoped for development of a hotel on the TV3 site in Durham Street is still on the books. There is a confidential conditional sale still in action.

This hotel project has seen successive proposals tip over since the late ‘80s.

It's hard to understand.

There can be little doubt of potential support, if it's priced right, to attract people once the facility is there.

Likewise the redevelopment of a large boat haul facility at Sulphur Point to replace the 600 ton slipway I referred to last week.

There have been two meetings in the past week with Priority One, councillors, the council's CEO, and most importantly representatives of the marine sector.

The proposal is for around 200 tons capacity to begin with, publicly owned (like the 600 ton slip).

This project will be industry driven, facilitated by council, not paid for out of rates and financing details, like sale of some of the Sulphur Point land are being hammered out.

The intention is to have or have not a viable project within three months.

This week's mindbender from Maurice Setter (whoever he was/is). Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.