Tauranga City Council Draft Ten Year Plan 2012-22

Submission from: Merivale Community Centre 10 Kesteven Ave Merivale Tauranga Ph: 07 578 6450 Author: Graham Cameron, Services Manager

Topic One: Financial support for the Merivale Community Centre through a targeted rates levy The Council will be aware of the increased demand for our services since the recession and now during a stalled recovery. As an example, we are funded to support 50-60 whnau in a financial year. In this financial year, we had provided support to 54 whnau by the end of December. In addition, our funding from central government has substantially decreased with the need to provide funding to Canterbury and the governments cuts to the public service. We are projecting a cut of about $100,000 funding since the last financial year. We are asking for Tauranga City Council to support our services at the Merivale Community Centre by applying a specific rates levy to the Merivale (Parkvale) area: Rates in our area are lower on average than the rest of Tauranga city because of lower house prices We are asking for a specific levy of 2% on households in our area to fund the Merivale Community Centre We estimate this would provide between $40,000 - $50,000 per year.

We lead the achievement of the following outcomes for Tauranga City Council in Merivale: Enhance the quality of life for current and future residents Work in partnership with the community and engage in meaningful consultation Provide leadership to the community that we represent.

We need your support to continue to provide a level of service that assists Merivale to grow into a contributing, positive and healthy community.

Topic Two: Support from Council to officially recognise Merivale as the name of our area Our area has been known to local people as Merivale since 1953 when the local school was renamed. However, with the naming of the post office as the Parkvale Post Office, we have failed to achieve official recognition of our community as Merivale.

This issue has become particularly pressing with the greater use of postal codes and online forms. For example, you cannot find Merivale on Google Maps because it is not officially recognised. We are in danger of losing our identity because of a administrative decision that ignored local protest. We are asking the Tauranga City Council to officially recognise that the primary name for our neighbourhood is Merivale (This would not exclude the use of Parkvale or Yatton Park).

Topic Three: Maintain the Mobile Library service and extend Greerton Library by 450m2 We are deeply concerned that the Mobile Library service is under threat of closure. We support the position of Friends of the Libraries and Merivale School that this constitutes an essential service that will damage the literacy of our children if it is ended. While we support the Council looking for alternative funding and a public/private partnership, until such time as these are found, we believe the Mobile Library services needs to be maintained at the current level of service by the Council. We also believe that the 200m2 extension is inadequate to meet the social and commercial needs of Greerton. Residents of Merivale are frequent users of the Greerton shops and library, and are detrimentally affected by living in an area that has one of the lowest ratios of books per head of population nationally. We fully support the call for the extension to be 450m2. The Council seems to be making these decisions on the basis of the cost alone, without recourse to the economic impact of libraries. Even a cursory glance at research internationally indicates that the direct and indirect economic benefit of libraries is anywhere between $3 to $5 for every $1 spent. Significantly I cannot find one study that indicates that money spent on libraries does not have an economic benefit of at least $2 for every $1 spent.

Topic Four: Road safety and area beautification improvements in Merivale Firstly, thank you to the Council for the upgrades to Fraser St at the Merivale shops. The roundabouts are having the desired effect of reducing traffic speed, a great improvement to safety in our area. There are some continued improvements that we would like the Council to include in the Ten Year Plan: The footpath around our shopping area is a maze of broken and mismatched concrete and hot mix, a danger to our older residents and residents with disabilities. It also presents a depressed and tired image to shoppers. We need our footpath to be improved, and our preferred option is for tiling in front of the shops in Merivale on Fraser St and Merivale Rd. The roundabouts have highlighted that the intersection of Courtney Rd and Fraser St is a danger, with frustrated drivers trying to exit Courtney Rd taking huge risks throughout the day. With the change in the right hand rule, there are now queues of cars at peak hour. We would like to see lights put in to this intersection to control the traffic flow. While the roading changes have been a great improvement, we still have a problem with cars turning across the median strip between the two roundabouts, and courier vans and trucks parking on the median to unload their goods. To resolve these dangerous practices, we ask the Council to put a raised median where the current painted median is between the two roundabouts at the Merivale Shops.

Topic Five: A voice for Youth and Community Development Tauranga continues to be marked by a lack of co-operation and co-ordination in youth and community development. This is evidenced in the myriad attempts at creating networks, and the lack of awareness amongst providers and communities as to what is happening at any one time in our city. We continue to ask the Tauranga City Council to establish a Community and Youth Development Unit. Even with the change to Council Outcomes, these are still important aspects of the Councils work, and the community sector needs to the support of its Council as a facilitator.

Topic Six: Walkway around Waimapu Estuary We have a wonderful estuary that borders Merivale, Poike, Hairini and the Avenues. The work on the Fraser St estuary walkway has led to an increased use and enjoyment of our natural environment. We encourage the Council to support the development of a walkway and boardwalk around the Waimapu Estuary to greatly increase the public access and enjoyment of this area. The Harbour Reserves Management Plan already has a project plan for progressing this idea, but it would require some commitment in the Ten Year Plan to see this progress beyond talk to action.

Topic Seven: Water ownership and iwi We were concerned to see that there was no discussion of water ownership in the Ten Year Plan, just a presumption that it was business as usual. The Tauranga Moana iwi are nearing the signing of their settlements with the Crown, and are active members of the Iwi Leaders Forum. The ownership of water is becoming an important issue, and many iwi around the country are looking to co-management relationships. Our own iwi are looking to this for the harbour at this stage, and may well turn their attention to fresh water. The Council would do well to be front footed in addressing this issue with iwi rather than carrying on with the status quo. This could be a significant risk to the water business. We suggest the Ten Year Plan specifically state an intention to engage iwi on the issue of water ownership.

Topic Eight: Property for sale in Merivale We support the Councils decisions in relation to the sale of the properties at 55 Merivale Rd, the unformed road between Hilltop Rd and Alverstoke Rd, and 113 Mansels Rd.

Topic Nine: Charging for events in open spaces We support Option B under Number One is relation to events in open spaces. Any charging of not-for-profits and community groups would make our larger events (which often run at a loss) untenable.