We don’t want to scare the horses, but did you know we have about 4 years left of our carbon budget if we are to play our part to meet NZ’s goal to limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees? Let’s approach this through a decision tree: Do you observe the global climate is… Continue reading Time to Talk about Tauranga’s Climate Plan
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Losing Our Democracy
“SmartGrowth” is a collaboration between Tauranga City Council, Western BOP District Council, BOP Regional Council, Tangata Whenua and central government that was established in 2004 to “manage” growth in this part of the country. On 17 August 2022, in a SmartGrowth Leadership Group meeting that wasn’t even livestreamed or uploaded onto YouTube, representatives of the… Continue reading Losing Our Democracy
Tauranga’s City Centre
Photo: BOP Times We’re a bit worried about who’s left at Disneyland, because Mickey Mouse and Goofy seem to have moved to Tauranga and taken over urban planning! If this paywalled article in the BOP Times is correct, then “Greerton Village could be Tauranga’s future city centre”. Which will be news to the people of… Continue reading Tauranga’s City Centre
Our ‘3 Waters’ Submission
Please click here to read our submission.
Three Waters Reforms
It’s been a while since our last blog, and there’s no lack of topical sustainability-related issues to write about. Ranging from the impacts of climate change to the effects of fuel price inflation, NZ and the wider world are facing some big challenges. However one sustainability issue that has struck a chord with many New… Continue reading Three Waters Reforms
Tauranga Civic Precinct and Sustainability
We’ll start this post by stating we support an appropriate-sized central library and museum or heritage centre in Tauranga… just so we’re all clear. But as we said in our submission to Tauranga City Council, we do not support their favoured option, and based on what we hear around the city, there’s a lot of… Continue reading Tauranga Civic Precinct and Sustainability
Tauranga By-election and Local Democracy
https://www.sunlive.co.nz/election-debate.html The Sunlive byelection debate last night was an interesting discussion about some important topics, so as an independent, non-aligned organisation, we’d encourage Tauranga residents to watch it before you vote. The most striking difference was Labour’s candidate being (unsurprisingly) strongly in favour of the removal of democratic elections for Tauranga City Council, while the… Continue reading Tauranga By-election and Local Democracy
Tauranga’s Civic Precinct saga continues
Interesting that as soon as submissions to council were finished, there are now much more detailed plans and costings from TCC and Willis Bond for the proposed Tauranga Civic Precinct project in tomorrow’s council meeting report (also see agenda). Despite a majority of submitters not wanting Option 1, TCC recommends the commissioners approve Option 1,… Continue reading Tauranga’s Civic Precinct saga continues
The Journey of the Underpass
by Jo Wills A few years ago, for a period of five years from 2016 to 2020, the community came together to fight for the underpass to be reinstated as part of the Bayfair to Baypark project. On Wednesday 20th April 2022 the new underpass was finally opened to the public. Riding through the underpass… Continue reading The Journey of the Underpass
More details emerge around proposed Tauranga Civic Redevelopment plan
Submissions to TCC’s Long Term Plan Amendment (LTPA) are due by 5pm this coming Tuesday 26 April. It’s taken us a bit of digging to get clear about the exact details of the two options for the Civic Redevelopment. We now have a better understanding of the implications of each option for debt and operating… Continue reading More details emerge around proposed Tauranga Civic Redevelopment plan