capped rates increases<\/a> as proposed.<\/p>\n![\"Tauranga]()
Tauranga City Council Te Papa ward councillor Rod Taylor. Photo \/ David Hall<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is definitely something that our community needs to have a say on, and more importantly, a good understanding of, so that they realise what it will mean going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believed communities should decide what to provide for themselves through the democratic process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI consider library services as core and not a nice-to-have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scoular said the cuts saved a \u201ctiny\u201d amount of money that could be eroded by the cost to rework employment agreements.<\/p>\n
Other reasons for her vote were that the libraries were in \u201cless affluent\u201d areas of the city, there was no consultation, and the cuts resulted from an \u201cill-considered\u201d Government demand.<\/p>\n
![\"Deputy]()
Deputy mayor and Mount Maunganui ward councillor Jen Scoular. Photo \/ David Hall<\/p>\n
She believed cost-cutting should focus on changes within the council operation, rather than by reducing community services.<\/p>\n
She said the council set a $4.6 million savings target in the 2026\/27 annual plan \u2013 \u201ca big number but still quite a small percentage of total costs\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pool decision \u2018surprising\u2019<\/p>\n
The vote on closing \u014ct\u016bmoetai pool on Sundays was split, with Mayor Mahe Drysdale using his casting vote to carry the motion. <\/p>\n
It would save $26,000.<\/p>\n
Scoular, Rolleston, Taylor, Steve Morris (P\u0101p\u0101moa) and Kevin Schuler (Bethlehem) voted against.<\/p>\n
![\"]()
Tauranga City Council has decided to close \u014ct\u016bmoetai Pool every Sunday as part of a series of targeted changes to community services to save money. Photo \/ Ayla Yeoman<\/p>\n
\u014ct\u016bmoetai resident Neil Pollett said he went to the pool regularly with his son and was disappointed there was no discussion with the community and pool users.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a few people found it surprising that this decision was made.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it was the only public pool on that side of the bridge, with busy Baywave the next closest. <\/p>\n
Evolution Aquatics swimming school head coach Riccardo Pini said \u014ct\u016bmoetai Pool was essential as there were no other pools between there and Katikati.<\/p>\n
He said the group had \u201cno idea\u201d about the closure.<\/p>\n
![\"\u014ct\u016bmoetai]()
\u014ct\u016bmoetai ward councillor Glen Crowther outside the \u014ct\u016bmoetai Pool. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Crowther said that while he voted for the closure at the meeting as the \u201cless bad\u201d option, he had dug further into the figures and believed the council\u2019s cost per swim should be lower than presented due to the overturned decision to demolish the pool.<\/p>\n
He said the council had until June to sign the decision off and he wanted to hear the community\u2019s thoughts.<\/p>\n
While the council was not formally consulting on the annual plan, it was running community meetings.<\/p>\n
\u2018Tough\u2019 financial times<\/p>\n
Drysdale said in the press release that the decisions were not taken lightly but reflected a careful balance between financial responsibility and community wellbeing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough time financially for most people and we have to look to save costs where we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council also reduced or cut funding for several adult library programmes, events, community grants, climate-related external grants, TECT and Haharua Parks, and by introducing a \u201chybrid grass-edging\/weeding model\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"]()
Tauranga Mayor Mahe Drysdale. Photo \/ David Hall<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes allow us to restrain rates increases while continuing to invest in the services that matter most to Tauranga\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council cited protecting privacy and commercial negotiations for excluding the public from the March meeting. It has since made the meeting agenda and minutes public.<\/p>\n
Council strategy, partnerships and growth general manager Christine Jones said the exclusion was to protect the privacy of people whose jobs would be significantly affected by the decisions.<\/p>\n
The council wanted to speak to them first rather than have them learn through media coverage or a livestream. This also applied to external organisations whose contracts could be impacted.<\/p>\n
\u014ct\u016bmoetai Pool would close on Sundays from July 1 and the two libraries from August 1. Mount Maunganui Library is already closed on Sundays. <\/p>\n
Tauranga City Library would continue to open on Sundays, with free weekend parking in the CBD.<\/p>\n
\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n
Ayla Yeoman<\/a> is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based in Tauranga. She holds a Bachelor of Arts majoring in communications, politics and international relations from the University of Auckland, and has been a journalist since 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She said the group found out when contacted by Local Democracy Reporting. Best said hundreds of locals used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[802,5205,94501,10277,111,43,139,69,90,23282,11590,6753,23371,1227,61],"class_list":["post-424854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-costs","tag-council","tag-greerton","tag-libraries","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-ppmoa","tag-save","tag-shut","tag-sundays","tag-tauranga","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}