Hundreds of submissions on region’s future

Tuesday 9 May 2006

About 600 Bay of Plenty people and organisations have had a say in the region’s future.

Environment Bay of Plenty has received nearly 420 submissions on its Draft Ten Year Plan. It also gathered many more comments during a regional road show last month.

Councillors and staff promoted the plan extensively, including sending a summary to every household in the region. “We made a real effort and it seems to have paid off,” says chairman John Cronin. “We’re very pleased with the results.”

Mr Cronin says the Ten Year Plan is important to the future of the region. It includes proposals for cleaning up Rotorua’s lakes and better bus services, and suggests ways to help fund important roads so they get built more quickly. It makes a strong commitment to continuing to work with local people and groups for a better environment. It also proposes a new way of rating for some of its activities.

Staff have begun the process of logging submission points and analysing them, says manager of strategic support, Ben O’Meara. However, some themes are already emerging, he adds. They include:

• Strong overall support for cleaning up the Rotorua lakes but differing opinions over who should pay for it and how much they should pay
• Tauranga people are keen to sort the transport situation, showing strong support for more frequent buses, a good cycle network and rail passenger transport
• Some submittors do not think local government should fund major roads because it is central Government’s job to do so
• Some submittors are concerned that rural landowners will pay twice if targeted rates are introduced for pest plant and animal work. That’s because many landowners are already doing work of this type on their land, they say

For more information, call Environment Bay of Plenty on 0800 ENV BOP (368 267) or go to www.envbop.govt.nz.

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