Two weeks on the road talking with Western Bay residents has been a great experience learning about what council can do to make the district an even better place, says Western Bay Mayor Ross Paterson.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council councillors and staff took a brightly-painted 1960s Bedford school bus to 17 destinations in the district during the last two weeks of July.

The Portraits of our Place bus at McLaren Falls on July 27.

Twenty-three staff, 12 councillors and 10 community board members hit the road from July 14-27 – travelling nearly 1000 kilometres and chatting with more than 1500 people.

The aim of the ‘Portraits of Our Place' road show was to get grassroots feedback from residents on their communities and where they feel council fits in with their day-to-day lives.

Ross says this is a new venture and has been successful in reaching out to people who normally would not encounter council.

'The overwhelming response from people was positive and 533 people filled out our questionnaires,” says Ross.

'I was thrilled to get out and have face-to-face conversations with people.

'It was a good way to get people to sit down and talk to us in a relaxed environment –personally it was a learning experience for me about what issues are really important to people.

Ross says what's been learned will feed into what council will do for the district during the coming years.

'We also found out people would like to be more involved in the decisions council makes,'' says Ross.

Six themes underpinned the road trip – community heart; land lovers; just coasting; nature nurture; kia kaha and bountiful bay – values that are the essential character of the Western Bay.

The Bedford bus used for Western bay fo plenty District Council's 'Portraits of our Place' roadie in July.

'While Western Bay residents are a forward-looking bunch and keen to embrace economic opportunities, our rural way of life and traditions remain dear to our hearts – and those sentiments certainly came out in conversations on the road trip,'' says Ross.

About 3000 ‘Portraits of our Place' stickers were given away to children during the trip, along with hundreds of ‘Portraits of our Place' postcards.

Council will continue selling postcard sets and a series of limited edition A2 prints featuring the six original illustrations depicting the roadie themes.

These are available at council libraries and service centres and serve to recover part of the project's costs.