Major 10-year plan given the go ahead

A major plan that sets Environment Bay of Plenty’s path for the next 10 years was formally signed off this week.

The regional council’s first Long Term Council Community Plan was adopted yesterday (Thursday 17 June) and comes into effect on July 1. It outlines what the regional council intends do, and how much it will cost to do it, over the next decade. It also incorporates the Annual Plan for the next financial year.

The regional council received 165 submissions on the plan, four times more than it clocked up for last year’s annual plan. Chairman John Cronin says most submissions supported the regional council’s work and its intention to have more input into regional issues like roads and economic development. “That is very pleasing,” he says. “It shows we’re on the right track.”

After three days of hearings, the council changed aspects of the plan to reflect the community’s wishes. It decided to put more money into a waste battery collection system and other hazardous waste collections over the next 10 years. It has allocated $20,000 to look at Tauranga Harbour management and $50,000 to go towards the SmartEconomy Strategy for the western Bay of Plenty.

It also put aside $80,000 to cover a possible increase in operating costs for the Papamoa Regional Park over the next two years. Because of requests from territorial authorities, it reinstated the eligibility of district and city councils to apply for the Environmental Enhancement Fund.

The full plan is posed on Environment Bay of Plenty’s website on www.envbop.govt.nz or call 0800 ENV BOP (368 267).

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>