The Papamoa Residents and Ratepayers Association – PRRA – has made a submission to the Tauranga City Council's Long Term Plan for a grant of $150,000 per annum.
'With the suspension of local democracy and the appointment of the commissioners, the ability of the ratepayers to influence the long term plan has become very difficult,” says PRRA chair Philip Brown.
'Council staff have no checks as the councillors have been side-lined. This task has fallen onto ratepayer groups.”
The city commissioners however are welcoming feedback on the Long Term Plan which was out on Friday.
'We want to hear what people think about what's in the LTP,” says Tauranga City Commissioner Stephen Selwood. 'Come and talk to us about it.”
The PRRA says it needs more resources and knowledge to debate the increasing complex issues being proposed by council.
'Much of this is beyond the understanding of lay ratepayers and PRRA needs to employ experts to help. Interestingly the council is proposing to spend an additional $20 million on staff next year,” says Philip.
Philip points out that this concept of providing funds to other parties involved in the community debate is not new, with the example of Downtown Tauranga applying for $150,000.
'An example, Plan Change 27 which imposed a theoretical rain event on Tauranga and resulted in maps showing areas of flooding and then tagging LIMs without any consultation before announcing this to the ratepayers, may be a completely flawed analysis,” says Philip.
'Our research has discovered a question mark over whether the correct height datum was used for the analysis. PRRA urgently needs to employ experts to check this anomaly.”
The full submission can be viewed on the website: www.papamoaresidents.co.nz and also includes a draft business plan.
The PRRA is asking for local Papamoa community support and asking for each member to make an individual submission to the Long Term Plan online and if possible also a verbal submission to the commissioners.
Online submissions can be made online on the Tauranga City Council website from May 7, 2021. Click here to make an online submission.
6 comments
Crazy
Posted on 09-05-2021 08:32 | By AJSommerville
These resident groups keep showing more and more how ridiculous they are, why on earth should ratepayers of the city fund such a bizarre proposal. I better also put in a submission to fund my randomly created group too.
Tom Ranger
Posted on 09-05-2021 12:33 | By Tom Ranger
Holy crap. Almost insolvent and planning to spend another 20 Mill on staff next year. I smell something...It's B.S.
Unbelievable
Posted on 09-05-2021 13:36 | By dolofry
The only people who will not be understanding the long term plan are those in this renegade group who have not yet grasped the damage they have done to democracy in Tauranga. Let us hear no more from them and their sheer ignorant ideas.
Ratepayers
Posted on 09-05-2021 14:41 | By peanuts9
There are a couple of rate payer groups with ideas above their station and this is one of them. Over the years, at least 2 of them have had undue influence on the inept councillors with the result of more money being spent in their areas. If the Commissioners give this group the funds, at the expense of the rest of the city, they may find more ratepayer funding per capita has been spent on Papamoa than other areas.
Dolofry and Peanuts
Posted on 10-05-2021 08:50 | By AJSommerville
Completely agree with the points you have made, these groups are the exact reason for the commission coming in by being the small groups that the councillors listened to. It is a pity they do not realise they are the problem and will prevent us going back to full democracy. At least the commissioners have been out talking to a variety of people rather than the same small groups.
Staff Pay Hike
Posted on 10-05-2021 12:39 | By Ceem
Following Tom Ranger's thread - rather the hike the Council's pay bill by $20M, perhaps an independent authority should be brought in to carry out a review of the current establishment, I bet the current wage bill would be reduced by getting rid of the dead wood.
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