Council will be leading a business delegation from Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty to China in July.
A group of about 50 will be heading to the World Expo in Shanghai. Tauranga's sister city in China, Yentai, is also on the delegation's itinerary, with the aim of further cementing our steadily-increasing trade with China.

Tauranga was one of the first cities to make friends with China in the post-Mao era and thanks to the efforts of people like the late Councillor Tom Mills, Margaret Cooper and the New Zealand – China Association, we have had a great relationship over the years. After the last sister city visit four years ago, it became clear the business sector's involvement needed to be moved up a few notches and this has been done with the help of Export (NZ) Bay of Plenty which receives $48,000 of target-related ratepayer assistance. The sister city budget is another $23,000.

Sister cities award
Tauranga and Export BOP are the winners of the 2010 Air New Zealand National Sister Cities Award, in recognition of the fact that we are at last going somewhere tangible. China is huge in every way imaginable and represents a huge opportunity for New Zealand. That's where council comes in. In China local government runs the cities and provinces on behalf of central government. Local mayors and councillors are very influential and important and they accord the same kind of respect to New Zealand local government politicians. This eases the way and opens doors for our businesses to trade. That's how it is in China and that's why we are involved. Mayor Stuart Crosby will lead the delegation accompanied by me (at my own expense) and a staff member. Environment BOP (EBOP) chairman John Cronin and councillor Robin Ford are delegates, as is Opotiki mayor John Forbes. Tauranga is able to facilitate this visit and 20 years of investment by Tauranga City ratepayers is bearing fruit (so to speak) around the Bay of Plenty. By the way, each elected member of our council was invited to travel with the delegation and mine was the only response. As I have said, I have paid my own way as have the rest of the business sector delegates. I don't know who is funding the EBOP chairman or the Opotiki Mayor. Obviously it is not Tauranga City.
While we are away I'll try and get a report back to The Weekend Sun to keep you up to date.

Parking review fizzer
The parking review turned out to be a bit of a fizzer, as I expected. Some of the suggested proposals just don't fit with a city of our size and geography. It was decided to leave the Mount as it is, as far as traffic management is concerned. People on holiday at the Mount at Christmas expect congestion and for the most of the rest of the year there aren't any real problems. I hasten to add that there was extensive discussion and elected members are aware that something will have to be done eventually. We did decide to look at adapting some parking in off-peak times on the southern side of the Mount camping ground to help relieve boat trailer parking congestion on the Mall.

Parking changes
In Tauranga, commuter parking around Monmouth and Mission Streets will get a makeover, with Park Street getting a three month one-way trial with access off Cameron Road and exit only on to Willow Street. Staff will also look at opening up the old Cliff Road/Marsh Street intersection for left turn in/left turn out. If this happens, Monmouth Street corner by the redoubt will need looking at.
The more ‘free' parking available, the less revenue collected to build more carpark buildings. I'm not advocating any change with that – it's just cause and effect.

Library charges
With hearings of submissions to the annual plan starting next week I researched library spend in other similar cities. As mayor Stuart Crosby jokingly said last week, of the 1061 submissions received, 1060 were about the proposed library charges. It seems our library spend is right up there, depending of course on how comparisons are drawn on the rates total. I also noted that none of the comparison cities were experiencing extraordinary growth like Tauranga. Apart from the library issue, we were told there are no other major issues arising from the annual plan. The current annual plan includes anticipated revenue from the library charges so if these get canned, as seems likely, the rates increase will go to around 11.5 per cent. There are a couple of other things that have cropped up since the plan was put together, so it could get to 12 per cent. As I've noted before, this is the cost of keeping the city going as it is. Decisions by past councils as to spending priorities were inevitably going to come home to roost and these consequences form a significant part of the increase, along with the predicted budget increases in coming years. And no promises of slash and burn from prospective election hopefuls will change any of that without significantly reducing levels of service.
Talking about council costs, I note without surprise that transition costs for Auckland's Super City Council are budgeted at $81 million.
In my experience they will surpass that. This is madness on a grand scale and will solve many problems to create even more and more expensive problems. If you don't learn from history you are bound to relive it.
Council's events sub-committee, which hears applications for events funding to help bring new attractions to Tauranga, met recently. Contrary to an assertion in the Bay Times this week, Murray Guy did not ‘successfully fight' for one issue to be brought back to council. There was unanimous agreement.
The event being considered will be a biggie if it comes off and that's why the issue is coming back to council. Interesting to note that this news item is yet another example of a hotline that seems to exist between the Bay Times and council's confidential business agenda.
Wonder if there is a pattern starting to emerge here about the origin of these breaches of confidential business?