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

Regional council describes Tauranga Harbour as the Bay of Plenty's biggest playground. Hundreds of people use the harbour for organised water sport and recreation.

For councils, water sports are easy to control because sports clubs can negotiate clubrooms and access to the harbour. Unfortunately there is no organisation responsible for overall management of recreational activities associated with the harbour. The harbour is the initial attraction for all visitors to the Bay but there is very little councils can do to control when these visitors arrive, where they go, or what they do when they get there. Sport Bay of Plenty works hard for organised sports in the Bay but their list of activities don't line up with the regional council's list for the recreational use of harbour. There is no group with responsibility for managing recreation users of the harbour who could be anywhere on the 150km coastline and be jet skiing, swimming, sailing, boating, fishing, canoeing, picnicking, horse riding, tramping, exploring or just relaxing. Many will be leaving rubbish around, entering forbidden areas and conflicting with other harbour users. The harbour needs a coordinated recreation policy. Councils need
to plan for locals and tourists as well as for the health of the harbour itself.
For recreation users, the first problem is access. We don't have a multi-use harbour park in the Northern Harbour to attract families. There are a number of small reserves that have been allocated a toilet and carpark but very few that could be termed a destination for a family picnic. Despite the council's policy of claiming esplanade strips on the foreshore, not many have been developed as walkways worthy of a sub-regional park. There are plenty of boat ramps purpose built for local fishermen with a minimal trailer park, but very few of these sites are suitable for picnics.

The TECT All Terrain Park, half way to Rotorua is a magnificent achievement for collecting some of the active sports and recreation pursuits and keeping them contained. We can't contain all of the water based recreation in one spot. To open up the harbour council must open two or three multi-user sub-regional harbour parks that people will see as day destinations that provide low level recreation activities for young families including safe swimming, walks, climbs, picnic sites and canoeing. The parks should provide a family friendly environment that a bus and tour companies would see as commercially feasible destinations for day trippers from around the Bay and for tourists.

This type of park needed was planned for Tuapiro but was stalled at the last moment in 2000. The Recreation Forum's submission to Western Bay of Plenty District Council last week asked that the Tuapiro Regional Reserve project be revisited, updated and the area be designated a sub-regional park. It only needs a change of title and a few signs for a start. Some of the area has been developed and is well used already and local residents are keen to see it developed to its full potential. It is appreciated and respected by local residents most of whom are still puzzled as to why the development was stopped. Meeting the recreational needs of the general public must come first in these parks. When people arrive and start appreciating the harbour the larger facilities like all-tide boat ramps and marinas will develop naturally.