Jane Nees BOP Regional Councillor www.janenees.co.nz

Early morning isn't generally the best time of the day for teenagers. However, I was very impressed at a recent SmartGrowth breakfast where student leaders, from 10 Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty high schools, were invited to give their perspective on growth issues and solutions.

It was obvious that many had a good grasp of the sort of place they want to live in as they mature, the issues that accompany population growth and economic development, and the aspects of our environment which will need to be safeguarded in the future.

Following a briefing on SmartGrowth (our 50 year spatial plan to manage growth and sustainable development in the Western Bay), students were invited to do some planning of their own. They used the SmartGrowth game – where large scale maps of the Western Bay, and blocks of different sizes and colours, were used to determine future land use (for example, residential, industrial, recreational reserves of various types) based on population projections. They found it wasn't easy – and that there are many trade-offs to be made. There were also differences of opinion – for example, whether offshore islands are a good place to site industrial development.

After this exercise, they did some brainstorming on key issues like tertiary education provision, transport and environmental protection. There wasn't a lot of time, but there were some really good and innovative ideas which came out of the discussion. I left feeling very optimistic for our future and hoping that many of these young people will end up on the Youth Forum, which is proposed to feed into SmartGrowth going forward.

If you have views on this or any other issue, please contact me at: neesj@xtra.co.nz or ring me on 07 579 5150. Or you can check out my website at: www.janenees.co.nz