Reading: 356 pages
Hours in meetings: 14 hours
Council is gearing up for consultations and there are more meetings. Navigational by-laws has just ended consultation while the Regional Land Transport Plan has just opened for consultation. Shortly the Long Term Plan will be open for consultation.
The week started with a “clinic” to which ratepayers are invited to meet with me at the Council Building. Between 10.30 and 12.30 on Monday morning exactly zero people took up that opportunity.
Tuesday started with a workshop with the project managers for Stage 2 of the Cameron Road upgrade. Hosted by Sustainable Bay of Plenty’s Glenn Crowther it was an opportunity for a range of stakeholders to talk with the project team. The range of views certainly challenged the project team. For example, some cyclists wanted a quick commute and therefore fewer side roads, while representatives of older people want safer pedestrian spaces and more signalised crossings and motorists preferred fewer crossings and opportunities to enter sideroads.
Meanwhile Komiti Maori also met. This committee of the Council discusses issues with a Maori lens and this time we heard from two summer interns, agreed that where some people referred to “co-governance” with Council it is really “co-management” as Council reserves the right to make final decisions, and the decision to hold Long Term Plan hearings on marae (in addition to other venues) was approved.
Councillors followed that meeting with another meeting updating us on the Regional Land Transport Plan going out for consultation.
On Wednesday the Tauranga Public Transport committee met from 9.30. I’m not a member of this but like to attend to keep up with what is happening in Tauranga. Some exciting news was discussed in the closed session and in the open session we looked at the upcoming “Bus on Demand” service between Pyes Pa and the Hospital. This is a 2-year pilot with the electric buses with the power sponsored by Mercury. Passengers will use an app to call a bus to the nearest corner and take them to a connecting bus service which will take them to their final destination. The 12-seater will be able to negotiate the narrow streets in some of our newer subdivisions.
School bus services were discussed with reference to ensuring we have sufficient supply.
In the afternoon the Chair of Monitoring and operations, Kevin Winter, and I as Deputy Chair, met with staff to discuss next weeks Mon and Ops Agenda.
This was followed by a meeting with City Commissioners to update them on the Regional Long Term Plan as it relates to the City.
So, a busy day of back to back meetings with no breaks between 9.30 and 5 pm.
And that was it for the week at Council.