A campaign is underway to ensure the survival of Tauranga's care groups, which Tauranga City Council says save rate payers considerable costs.

Last year funding for the Urban Greenspace Project, which facilitates care groups to clean and revamp the city's parks and reserves, was pulled and the number of care groups has significantly dropped as a result.
Council parks coordinator Josh Trafford says the loss of the funding means the council is now trying to make the five remaining care groups in Tauranga become self-efficient.
'There's been a huge drop (of care groups). Care groups can save the council some considerable costs and a lot of the work they do is an increased level of service that council would only provide in some areas.”
He says the previous funding allocated to the Urban Greenspace Project enabled biodiversity coordinator at the Tauranga Environment Centre to coordinate and organise the groups.
'Their whole drive has gone. We can offer them some support and help, but with day to day working bees they have to run it themselves and that's where some of them are struggling.
'A lot of them are having a hard time because they are offering a community service but we are making them jump through hoops.”
Josh says a lot of the work to make the groups self-efficient involves care group members doing more paper work.
'A lot of it is just paper work. Because they are working on public land there's a lot more regulation with how they operate.”
Josh says the council is not currently looking for more care groups because it is struggling to maintain existing numbers.