Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

The controversial Katikati Town Centre Plan is in the news again.

If the amended project plan goes ahead we will see more than $8m of work underway by 2015. The total project will be just under $13m but council is moving with urgency.

The plan is of course a limited plan for just the centre of town around Talisman Drive and is intended to prepare the town for when the new bypass is built. Details of planned work and budget are available on Western Bay of Plenty District Council's website in the agenda for the Operation Services Committee. By 2016 you should be able to have the benefit of a new library and council offices, with some parking changes in the Talisman Drive, for $6.8m and a parking area with Kotahi Lane improvements by the Uretara for $1.8m. Main Road, fire station and Memorial Hall developments will come later.

Paying for this project in the current climate might seem to be a problem but the council is expecting to use the district-wide town centre development funding for the project. This money has previously been allocated to Te Puke and now it is Katikati's turn for the next three years. Unfortunately it will probably generate just under $1m and will have to be used to pay back the $650,000 loan the council has already borrowed to buy the library site.

Last week the council approved a request to the regional council asking for an infrastructure fund grant of $8m to get the project under way. Nice work if you can get it but this leaves us with two possible questions. What happens if the regional council says no, and what might happen if the regional council says yes? If the answer is no, does the council intend to go ahead and demand more targeted rates. If it says yes and the plan goes ahead, what have they committed ratepayers to?

At the meeting councillor Norm Mayo was concerned that the project appeared to be going ahead and stated that in this climate council would be committing political suicide. An amendment was offered that no work could go ahead without public consultation allowing the application to be approved. This could mean a referendum. The region's infrastructure fund is intended for infrastructure like water sewerage and roads etc. To include the Town Centre plan in this list is stretching the point. Apart from generalities, there is no cost/benefit analysis offered in any of the planning that might allow the regional council to identify any benefit at all for the region, the district or even for Katikati. Meanwhile, has anyone got a spare $13m to give to council? I am sure they would be happy to talk with you.

In the meantime, Katikati has moved on. Katikati Library is distributing ebooks, so we might not need a new library at all. In the talks on the amalgamation of Katikati, Waihi Beach and Matakana we were told that there is no intention at all to have any new ward representation centred in Katikati, so there is no need for expanded council offices. Summerset Village on Park will house more people than live in Athenree and shops will be developed at the end of Park Road. Maybe council has to start again and do a proper plan for the whole of Katikati. We have been asking for one for a number of years.