Council to un-cut mowing budget

The council is expected to restore the $45,000 into its 2015-16 lawnmowing budget.

Tauranga's controversial attempt to prune $45,000 out of its lawnmowing budget looks set to be reversed today following a severe public backlash.

The cost-cutting bid by the council met with a torrent of complaints once spring growth made some reserves untidy and unusable for children.

Today's meeting starting at 9am will consider reverting to the former mowing schedule. The council was responding to at least 14 written complaints, numerous phone calls and three petitions including residents neighbouring Pyes Pa's Condor Reserve and Papamoa's Topaz Reserve.

Issues raised by families included children being unable to kick balls or play cricket and children trampling on hard-to-see dog droppings.

The council was expected to restore the $45,000 into its 2015-16 lawnmowing budget. In the meantime it will consider reprioritising current spending so the problem was not repeated once the dry spell ended.

Another area hit by cost saving has been the Kopurererua Valley greenbelt skirting Route K, with hundreds of thousands of dollars cut from budgets during the last 10 years, to leave the planting budget at $60,000. An alternative to further reductions next year was to add $100,000 to fund the removal of the inaccessible willow-infested forest and replant in accessible native wetland species.

It was revealed that council cost-cutting during the past three years has seen 2200sq m of street gardens removed at a saving of $6600.

The meeting will also debate the possible sale of three farms and a reserve acquired for future sports parks and reserves in Tauranga's growth areas. They are Smiths Farm near Cambridge Rd's Westridge subdivision, Merricks Farm off Pyes Pa Rd, Ohauiti Reserve and the lower end of Bethlehem's Parau Farms.

Nearly half the $10 million obtained from the sales would be spent buying land for sports fields in Papamoa East's undeveloped Te Tumu growth area.

Other proposals due to be discussed by the council tomorrow prior to going out for public consultation were:

-Boosting the economic development rate paid by Tauranga businesses to a one-off increase of 5 per cent. The extra money would accelerate initiatives like supporting tertiary education organisations and innovative business clusters.

It would collect another $64,000 above the standard 2 per cent inflation adjustment.

-Shortening the debt recovery period for the $100 million Southern Pipeline by increasing development contributions over the next three years from the current $2840 per lot, to a maximum of $3600 per lot. Clearing the debt at 2045 would decrease the council's interest rate risk and "enhance the council's balance sheet capacity".