Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale thanks the people of Tauranga Moana for providing feedback on two important topics: the draft Annual Plan 2025/26 and Local Water Done Well.

During the month-long consultation period – from 28 March to 28 April 2025 – Council received 968 submissions, with 96 people wanting to speak to their submission at the upcoming hearings.

To make a submission, people were encouraged to visit council’s website and provide feedback via an online form.

More than 20 events were also held across the city in April, providing an opportunity for the community to find out more and share their thoughts with the Mayor and Councillors.

“Thank you to those who came along. This was one of the first opportunities we’ve had as a group to get out into the community and talk with people about what matters to them and ask whether we have the right balance between investing in our future and keeping rates affordable now,” says Mahé.

“We realise it’s not always possible to come at the allocated times and with that in mind, we’re also running councillor drop-in sessions throughout the year.”

In addition to consulting on the draft Annual Plan 2025/26, under policy direction from central government, all councils are required to consult with their communities and decide on a proposed future delivery model for drinking water, wastewater and storm water services. This is known as Local Water Done Well.

Council assessed a number of options and three were offered for community consideration.

Council’s proposed model is a multi-council controlled organisation (CCO) with potential partners, including Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

In addition, a Tauranga City Council standalone CCO was consulted on. This model would be solely-owned and controlled by Tauranga City Council.

The third option consulted on was for Tauranga City Council to keep its current model, where water services are kept in-house, with changes to comply with new legislation.

Mahe says everyone who made a submission has contributed to the decision-making process.

“Every submission will be read and considered, and we are looking forward to hearing from those who wish to speak to their submissions at Council meetings this week.”

Hearings will take place at Council Chambers, 90 Devonport Road in Tauranga from 9am-5pm on Tuesday, 13 May and at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui from 1pm-7pm on Wednesday, 14 May.

All submissions will then be considered during the deliberations on the draft Annual Plan 2025/25 and Local Water Done Well from Monday, 26 May.

Once decisions are made, the final Annual Plan document will be completed and brought to the Council to adopt on 26 June.

Following consideration of Local Water Done Well feedback, Council is also tasked with completing a Water Services Delivery Plan, which is required to be submitted to central government before 3 September.

This plan will set-out how Tauranga will provide a financially sustainable waters service for the future and is required to be accepted by government.

See Council meetings and agendas for more information.

For more information about the Annual Plan and Local Water Done Well, head to Let's Talk Tauranga.

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