It looks as if there will be an attempt to revisit the bus station decision at council.

With seven elected members present, Willow Street was chosen by majority vote 4 to 2 with one abstention. This was one occasion when abstaining from voting was not a cop out. The resolution only offered two options, Willow Street and Durham Street. What about the status quo, do nothing, or another site? From where I sit, myself and other councillors were away on other council business or holiday and didn't hear submissions nor, obviously, hear the debate. Unless the whole scenario is revisited I consider the decision should be left alone. There's only one thing worse than a wrong decision and that's no decision.
I'm not going to drop ratepayers in for the rough end of another $1 million for a Durham Street bus station. An application is in to ‘The Agency' for a subsidy of just over half for Willow Street which gets more brownie points than Durham Street and qualifies for subsidy. And what is this bus station anyway. It's more of a bus stop then a Britomart terminal. If there's no subsidy we shouldn't do it? The election campaign looks like it's started early. There are more important issues than a bus stop facing this city that lacks some basic infrastructure.

Tauranga's pipe dream
I was called to yet another stormwater issue in Matua. It never ceases to amaze me how these problems were created. Basic inept town planning, inadequate pipe sizes, inadequate pipe gradient to name a few causes. In low lying ground you have to have the stormwater outlet above the tide level. If you don't the tide can force stormwater back up the pipe. Obvious? Allowing suburban infill (building another dwelling on your section) with street stormwater pipes designed for only one dwelling per site seems a bit silly. We need to spend over $150 million to fix Tauranga's stormwater, or at least get it up to standard. That got cut to about $50 million. So that means prioritising where the stormwater money gets spent. Officers have to make judgement calls on the seriousness of the problem and that's not easy. Our stormwater staff do a good job making silk purses out of sows ears in my opinion, but with restricted resources they can't do the impossible. I'd allocate the bus station money to stormwater if I had to make a call but I'd rather not spend it at all. This may be an option if the Willow Street subsidy application is unsuccessful.

City plan
At full council we put the new draft City Plan out for consultation. Last week I implored you read it and make submissions as it has huge implications for the future direction of the city. We had to call in the legal eagles to advise on whether parts of it would be operative immediately. Apparently Resource Management Act alterations are ambiguous. We're the first cab off the rank with these amendments which came into effect October 1. So much for Rodney Hide's red tape slashing. It looks like its System 1 – Rodney 0; the Sir Humphrey's win again with the 'new simplifying act”. This plan is a draft. It is not council policy and not necessarily what the elected council wants. It was passed for consultation on a vote of 9-2. Catherine Stewart opposed on the grounds that it hadn't come back for elected members' final approval and Hayden Evans didn't say why he opposed. Wayne Moultrie, commenting on Rodney Hide noted the 'shortcomings of the Minister – he was found to be short.”
Another one liner from Greg Brownless when we were discussing the possibility that a horse drawn cart for visitors around Mount streets at Christmas time might impede traffic flows. Without a flicker Greg asked if this conjecture, 'wasn't putting the cart before the horse”.

Tree turnaround
Another tree issue, this time at Welcome Bay. A tree got sick and was replaced by a Kauri. The immediate neighbours asked for its removal due to view obstruction, shading, drops of leaves and many other reasons. Rick Curach moved the tree be replanted but to his absolute credit, when during the debate it was pointed out the consequences of doing this, he ended up voting against his own motion. Well done Rick. Bill Grainger and Mayor Stuart Crosby will talk to neighbours seeking a compromise. The city needs trees; appropriate types in appropriate places.

Sleeping in the car
With the silly season almost upon us elected members had a review of the mobile homes policy to see how it was working. Staff said it was working well with 64 complaints over nine months, with the vast majority from illegal sleeping in cars on Marine Parade – not certified mobile homes. Only three complaints were from designated areas so the policy won't be changed.

Maori land
We considered the matter of development contributions payment options on multiple owned Maori land. Multiple owned Maori land is a complex issue, principally because the law requires all owners to be involved, and in many cases all owners can't be traced. It is an issue for Tauranga and Maori are interested in seeing this land productively utilised. The request is for some kind of instalment payment programme. An in depth debate saw elected members approving more investigation but at the heart of the matter we said that council must have absolute security over the debt and how and who would pay interest on the outstanding development contributions. On the positive side it would mean that this land would then make the contribution to the running of the city that the rest of the ratepayers do.