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Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor |
Last week at council, we took a sneak peak at the region's population projections for the next 50 years. Basically, the populations of developed countries are likely to hit a ceiling in the mid-2020s, causing worldwide competition for skilled labour to service an aging population.
While there was a baby boom after World War 2, the younger generations are barely making enough babies to replace themselves. From the mid-2020s, the Western Bay is likely to have more deaths than births – and any population growth will be from people moving here from other areas.
Tauranga will always be an attractive place for people to retire. This is great news as there will hopefully be more venture capitalists and experienced mentors for our local businesses to tap into. It may also change how and when people choose to get around the city, which is good news for the rush-hour traffic getting to work or school in the mornings.
A good chess player thinks five moves ahead. I believe council's 10-year plan for 2015-2025, which we initiated last week, is to prepare the city for the changing demographic tide.
As an example, let's avoid spending millions on building fatter roads to cope with today's rush-hour traffic, if rush-hour traffic is likely to change in 10 years.
Other news from council
Also last week, council agreed not to issue fines for bald tires. Our officers will instead issue a friendly reminder, stating your car's warrant of fitness is invalid and it's your responsibility to replace it.
We have tens of thousands of public trees across the city. Occasionally, council is asked to remove a dozen or so trees, roughly each year. This means our arborists do a great job of managing the trees we largely inherit.
The joint Western Bay of Plenty district and Tauranga City councils started a review of how we both support local economic development. We'll look at the key players and see if there's a better way for the Western Bay to achieve genuine economic prosperity. More on this topic in a future column.
The 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gate Pa sure was hair-raising. The battle is a key milestone that helped to shape Tauranga's modern history. It also led to Tauranga's claim to world fame as the Geneva Convention, also adopted in 1864, was based on the same principles as the merciful agreement between the British and Maori warriors in the Gate Pa battle.
Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text me on 027 6989 548, and follow me at www.facebook.com/a.younger.voice.