Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

Te Puke at last

I have not written about Te Puke in this column before. I have plenty of documentation on the town, but I had no background to offer any worthwhile comments. As with most visitors to the Bay, our stops were always further east and Te Puke was a town we passed through. Last week, Colin and Gail showed me around the Te Puke CBD and we spent three hours meeting people and comparing life on opposite ends of the Western Bay. Of course the council gets it wrong, but my first impression was of, despite the current arguments, a town that is alive and kicking, with people that care.

Te Puke or Katikati

I was surprised to find some in Te Puke saw Katikati as a better and friendlier small town; we are envious of Te Puke's large Main Street. Te Puke is very worried over the bypass and believe it could kill the town, while Katikati is looking for a bypass to save the town. Gradually we both became aware of how much the towns had in common. I knew that Te Puke was a Vesey Stewart settlement, but it has not just been the history. The achievements and development of the two towns have been so similar it is obvious we do have much we can share.

Out of the shadows

As service towns, Tauranga has grown faster as the port services, the forestry industry and the Tauranga-based kiwifruit industry has dominated much of the rural activity in the Bay. Te Puke and Katikati have been forced into being satellite towns. This was further confirmed when I found the word hinterland, was also used to describe the rural area behind Te Puke as well as in Katikati. Hinterland is defined as that forgotten area behind a port or town.

I went back to the documentation on the decision that set up Western Bay separate from Tauranga and understood its reasoning for the first time. They were right. Western Bay is not just a collection of small towns; it does have its own identity. SmartGrowth was right in 2004 in the 50 year plan, when it recommended the slow natural development of the small towns in the Bay. Katikati, Athenree and Waihi Beach fit together as a regional council population catchment area and Te Puke and Maketu has to be considered together as a single community of interest when discussing new ward boundaries.

Way to go

Kaimai only has one service centre and that is Tauranga. Bethlehem and Greerton were close satellite towns, but both have been absorbed into the city. The rumours of an amalgamation of Western Bay and Tauranga now seems inappropriate, but the amalgamation of Kaimai and Tauranga is not only possible, it is already happening. All Western Bay needs now is to come out of the shadows, reject the label of hinterland and let the twin centres of the Bay start planning our future together. The current idea of a three ward system, east, central and west, now makes a lot of sense.