Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

Council looked at how we can support Tauranga's retail sector this week.

The first topic we discussed was helping retailers in the city centre. There are many challenges facing retailers across the country and globally.

The biggest local risk to retailers in the CBD is the rise of retail malls in the suburbs; but even they are not immune to the competition from online shopping.

Council had a briefing with Tauranga Mainstreet this week to share information about car parking in the CBD.

Elected members use these closed briefings to gather information so we can have a quality debate during a formal meeting. We only make decisions at formal public meetings.

Council will have the great CBD parking debate at a public meeting on July 23.

The second topic we discussed was mobile shops and temporary food outlets. We learned last summer mobile shop traders do not like being caught out by TCC changing the rules between summer seasons.

The current rules are not perfect; but we heard the biggest issue was council didn't communicate the new rules well enough. So we decided not to tinker with the current rules before the next summer starts.

We're going to keep the same rules as last summer and gather quality feedback from the mobile traders and monitor complaints. We'll then see if we still need to review the rules after March 2015.

This reinforces my key message in last week's column that the new council is focused delivering quality rather than quantity.

I attended the monthly Papamoa Progressive Association meeting with Mount/Papamoa councillors Steve Morris and Clayton Mitchell.

The Rena resource consent is still a big issue. We heard from MP Tony Ryall that the Government is not going to intervene with the formal resource consent process.

I urge you to visit the Rena website (www.renaproject.co.nz) and make your own submission.

I believe the new council aims to achieve the best outcomes for the city based on sound logic and evidence, as opposed to ideological political grandstanding.

We're still reading several folders of technical evidence. I'm looking forward to having the debate with my colleagues on what we're going to submit on. I hope council will make a submission by the deadline of August 8.

Correction: Last week I referred to the government removing the tolls on the Tauranga Harbour Bridge. The Council of the day removed the tolls. This correction does not change the premise of my point.

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.