Unless there's a late surge of votes for Mark Wassung, it appears former councillor John Robson will be sitting around the table in council chambers from next week.

John was first elected to Tauranga City Council in 2013, part of a cohort of fresh faces, but lasted only one term before being turned out by voters in 2016.

Clearly, the past 18 months have given residents and ratepayers time to reconsider their decision, however.

As of Tuesday afternoon, an initial count of the votes currently received by the electoral officer puts John on 4944 votes – 805 ahead of nearest rival Mark Wassung.

With only around 1000 votes remaining to be counted, unless they all back Mark, it is John who will be sworn in as a councillor at an extraordinary meeting on Monday May 7.

'I feel good,” he says. 'I and a few other people have worked quite hard to get this result, but of course the real works starts now.”

'The big thing is: can we move these numbers between now and signing off the Long Term Plan? I believe I've been elected because a number of people want to see that happen.”

Current councillors Steve Morris and Rick Curach both publicly supported John's bid for council, and he says he'll be working alongside them to make sure there are changes to the Long Term Plan.

To begin with, he's not a supporter of the museum as it stands.

'I've made it pretty clear I'm totally against the proposed $55 million museum on Cliff Road. It's a matter of prioritisation. We have some things we need to do as a city, and some of the arguments for a museum just don't wash. It's not a great economic stimulus, and we don't need to attract people to this city.”

He says our roads are ‘grinding to a halt' and the issues with the city's recycling need to be addressed.

'The idea we need to pander to tourism is not at the top of my agenda. Promising large buildings and telling people we can finance them without touching the ratepayer is a fantasy. We need to focus on successfully managing a growing city. That means the water, the roads, and the basics. Let's see where we are once those are under control.”

He's also made it clear he's opposed to the current rates rises proposed in the Long Term Plan, and won't be voting for it on that basis.

'If the Long Term Plan goes through, we have property owners facing rates rises of more than 60 per cent in one year, and that's just obscene. There was no real consultation done on that. The business community was totally blindsided.

'There's a hell of a lot of work to do to get this Long Term Plan back in reasonable shape.”

As for that other big council issue – Bella Vista Homes – John is of the opinion that not all the information has been made public.

'A lot has happened on Bella Vista that isn't in the public domain. Clearly, in part at least, the council must take some responsibility. You can't issue a code of compliance for a property and then withdraw it. Some answers need to be made public.”

He says figures of half a million dollars or more have been touted as the total cost of the Bella Vista debacle so far, but believes the real figure is even higher.

'It will have cost the council a lot more than that when you take into account the staff time devoted to this issue.

'A councillor's job is to understand what is going on, and to ask the right questions. And frankly, those questions haven't been asked over the last 16 months.”

In 2013, John also promised to pay back a portion of his councillor's salary if he wasn't re-elected – a promise he made good on, and intends to honour again.

'Absolutely. Why wouldn't I? It only cost me $58,000 last time.”