Elected members adopted the Tauranga City's 2014/2015 Annual Plan at a council meeting this week.

When I read the agenda, I was surprised to notice a previous clause in prior annual plans had been removed from the recommended resolution.

The clause was: 'That it be noted that during the preparation of the 2014/2015 Annual Plan there were issues arising that did not have the support of all elected representatives. Though there may not be unanimous agreement on every aspect or prioritisation in the 2014/2015 Annual Plan, council endorses the overall content of the 2014/2015 Annual Plan”.

This clause, in my opinion, reflected the fact elected members are individuals who represent the community and as such have different priorities for expenditure and vote accordingly.

Mayor Stuart Crosby said staff removed the clause as there is a new culture among elected members. I was concerned the clause had been removed without elected members prior knowledge.

The Development Contributions Policy for 2014/2015 was adopted. This highly technical document is some 260 pages.

Tauranga City Council operates on the principle 'growth pays for growth”. However, some $25$30 million of debt has been transferred to ratepayers because growth didn't as predicted.

I would like to see the 'growth pays for growth” principle revisited, as I believe it often puts councillors in a difficult position, such as when we're advised about $2m had been collected in development contributions for the Greerton Library, so we need to spend it on this project.