Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

'Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I'll spend the first four hours sharpening my axe” – this quote from Abraham Lincoln is a good analogy for the last two weeks at Tauranga City Council.

With no formal meetings this week, we have been getting our business in order to prepare the draft long term plan.

Councillor Clayton Mitchell outlined the three areas of Tauranga City's new vision in my column last week.

In my opinion, this means Tauranga will never be a heavy weight city able to compete against the likes of Auckland, Sydney, or London.

But it can be the world's best lightweight city, known for its knockout punch. This acknowledges Tauranga is not going to exceed 200,000 people by 2060.

Ask most local architects; Tauranga has a reputation for wanting an award winning design but expecting it on a LEGO budget.

Previous councils were not immune to this reputation; they had a bad habit of delegating their way out of issues by creating strategies, but failing to commit resources.

We're no longer known as $10 Tauranga; we're known as half-hearted Tauranga.

This new council is making sure we match our promises with the right resources.

The new city vision will mean Council says no to a lot more ideas. But I hope we'll back ourselves when we find a good investment, rather than doing things half-heartedly.

Our chief executive is restructuring Council's administration to ensure ‘what gets resourced gets done'.

Ratepayers should be focused on the overall staff costs as opposed to worrying about the number of bums on seats.

The previous council's restructure was a false saving because they didn't reduce levels of service; it resulted in increased consultancy and contractor spend instead.

Our new focus on customer service means we can deliver councillors' promises of working with the building industry on a monthly basis to resolve consenting problems.

It was reported last week 15th Ave will no longer be considered a state highway.

Previous councils have considered this since the government removed the tolls on the harbour bridge.

Even if the government paid to expand 15th Ave into four lanes, the city would need to fund improvements worth millions of dollars to the twelve intersections along 15th Ave to safely support four lanes of traffic.

Once the Welcome Bay tunnel is completed, I just don't see 15th Ave being a priority. It's only busy for two hours during a 24 hour period.

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.