Cr Bill Faulkner Faulkners Corner www.sunlive.co.nz

For those of you who are interested in outdoor pursuits and haven't recently visited TECT All Terrain Park at the top of Pyes Pa Road, there is a wonderful facility being developed up there by the users – at their cost.
Provision of the land by a joint venture between ratepayers of Tauranga City Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council and funding from TECT has made around 1700 hectares available for activities that have been chased out of town by urban development and other reasons.

Pistol clubs, rifle clubs and claybird shooting have started very significant works to accommodate their activities.
Mountain biking trails are in use, horse riding trails and an equestrian corral are in use, motorsport activities, including motorbike riding, operate there also.
Harmony in sight
Inevitably, despite the best of intentions, there have been a few tensions between park users and one such occurrence was needed to be resolved this week by the joint council sub committee that oversees park management. It is proposed that the Tauranga Model Aircraft Club be leased land adjacent to the shooters' lease. The committee heard from the TMAC a number of examples where the two activities co-exist in harmony. As an aside, it was interesting to learn that some 70 per cent of model aircraft now have electric motors. They fly around 150 metres in the main with extreme limits of about 300 metres. You have to be able to see them to control them!
The shooters submitted that it was not a compatible use to their site saying that safety, noise distraction and other factors made for possible conflict. I won't get into detail, but on balance the committee voted 4-1 with one abstention, Tony Christiansen, who has a model aircraft, to allow the TMAC lease subject to strict protocols regarding retrieval of crashed aircraft on the shooting range.
Safety in the hills
The committee has visited the site and, even though none of the submitters mentioned it, in my view, the hilly topography of the site means that the chance for conflict is small. We hope that as time goes on, all park users will cooperate with each other to ensure the original vision of a ‘Noisy Boys' Park', and not so noisy too, can turn into a reality.
Harbouring the tourists
At joint governance committee, Tauranga City and Western Bay District members received six monthly reports from Tourism BOP and Priority One. Both organisations receive targeted ratepayer support. Tourism BOP $774,953 annually and Priority One $638,327 annually from the commercial and industrial ratepayers – not residential ratepayers.
Glenn Ormsby is representing Tourism BOP since Tim Burgess moved on.
Some interesting information came out under questioning from committee members.
He said this past season there were 54 cruise ships through Tauranga bringing around 83,000 passengers, plus about 6000 crew members. Statistics show tourist retention in our city is now 50 per cent. Estimated total spend is around $17 million.
Like most activities, the cruise ship business has been ‘rationalised'!
P&O lines for example – that bastion of everything in English shipping is now owned out of Miami.
The tourist information being handed out to tourists as they arrived in Tauranga was seriously defective and that is being rectified. Heads rolled we were told. Next season some 82 ships are scheduled, bringing some 200,000 passengers and crew to Tauranga. The city seriously needs professional activities that attract and retain these passenger dollars in our city.
Rugby World Cup is also attracting tourists and one operator in France has 1175 tourists booked in Tauranga. Two cruise ships will stay overnight in October coinciding with the Arts Festival – another potential 4500 patrons.
Harnessing business
Priority One presented its view of business in the Bay over the past six months. Harbour Central, the marine precinct development down at Sulphur Point is proceeding slowly. The downturn certainly knocked the marine industry. Tertiary education facilities are high on Priority One's list with the aim of bringing a university campus into the central city. University of Bremen in Germany has brought marine studies into Tauranga with an $11m budget. With the demise of Christchurch as a conference centre, initiatives as to how Tauranga could pick up on this are being explored. In my opinion, it is unlikely that this will include ratepayer funding, but council can facilitate where possible.
Ultimately Priority One says a 700-800 person conference facility is needed.
Negotiations with the developer of a so-far confidential hotel on the Durham Street/TV3 site are ‘continuing'. They have been ‘continuing' with various proposals since the mid ‘80s. Some hotel chains have missed a bargain opportunity over the years as the city made the land available, at a cost of course, and a requirement for public parking at council cost!
Keeping track
Once again, no daily media present at the meeting, possibly because the meetings are held out at Barkes Corner, which is not just a slow walk around the corner.
These two activities are critical to the Western Bay financial future and whilst not sensational, are an important part of our future.
It's not just the hotel that's going slow either. The never ending saga of the new CEO appointment continues to drag out.
Negotiations, contract terms, and all manner of checks take forever. A police check takes eight weeks.
Looking back
Re my item last week about setting financial limits on the forthcoming Ten Year Plan. It involves setting priorities on capital expenditure. It is the cost of loan servicing and operating costs that drive rates increases. It's like buying a car and then not allowing for running costs. You are better off not buying the car if you can't pay to run it. So we need to prioritise what ratepayers can afford to run and are prepared to pay for and postpone everything else to the distant future.

This week's mindbender from Norman Mailer – ‘Once a newspaper touches a story the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.'