Tauranga mayoral race: Tanya Bamford-King says Tauranga needs to shed its ‘small-town’ mindset

Tanya Bamford-King is running for mayor and standing in the Matua-Otūmoetai Ward.

In July, the people of Tauranga will choose who will be running their city for the first time in five years. A mayor and nine councillors will replace the four-person commission that has been in place since February 2021. To keep people informed ahead of the election on July 20, Local Democracy Reporting asked the 15 mayoral candidates their thoughts on four topics. Over the next few weeks, readers will hear from each of the mayoral candidates.

Tanya Bamford-King lives in Judea and is married with two adult children. The 57-year-old grew up in the Bay of Plenty and had a national and international corporate career. She moved back to the Bay in 1998 and brought her first small business, the nightclub Harringtons.

She has run other small businesses, including Art of Movement Dance, and is an accounting and administration consultant for small and medium-sized businesses. She said her relevant experience with regard to local government is her time spent running businesses, which taught her the traditional skills of understanding and managing finance people, as well as “the subtle and complex art of herding cats”.

”These are the skills I will take into my role as mayor. A creative, flexible and inclusive style of leadership - goal-oriented, but very curious and open-minded.”

Bamford-King is running for mayor and standing in the Matua-Otūmoetai Ward.

Tauranga is the least affordable city in New Zealand because of an infrastructure and housing deficit. How would you address this?

Tauranga is an exciting, vibrant, emerging city. But it still identifies culturally as a “fairly large” small town in New Zealand, with small-town values.

This impacts on our growth and infrastructure decisions, contributing to our infrastructure and housing deficit. If we don’t reframe some of these small-town values, we risk becoming a huge, unwieldy behemoth like our big cousin Auckland. We need to reframe our “quarter-acre dream” to creating liveable, desirable homes and environments for all of our people, and to recognise there are diverse ways of achieving this goal.

We need to transition from our nostalgic “freedom of the road” ideals to freedom of movement in and around our city. Holding on to our small-town ideals is unsustainable and undesirable. We need to adapt to the changing needs of our growing population and proactively shape the future of our city.

What would you do to keep young adults in Tauranga and attract others to the city?

We need to become the vibrant, exciting and diverse city we have the potential to be - a city filled with sophisticated sporting, artistic and cultural activities; world-class recreational spaces and facilities; a lively hospitality culture; and even late-night dining options on Saturday nights.

To get there, we need to shed our outdated small-town dreams and find our feet and identity as a city. One that attracts and holds an exciting, diverse population.

Tauranga will have its first Māori ward this election. The Government plans to require councils to hold a binding referendum on Māori wards established after March 2021. Meaning the Te Awanui Māori ward could only be in place for one term. Given the change in Government policy, is it important for Tauranga to keep this ward?

First, I question the appropriateness of central government intervening in what is a “business-as-usual” local council decision. Secondly, wards are set by local bodies to create the best community representation on council.

They may include special wards, including rural wards where population density is lower and requires special treatment.

Creating the Māori wards is not any different to the creation of any other special wards. The Māori ward represents a significant section of our community who choose to identify primarily as Māori and vote on the Māori roll - the roll size is roughly similar to most of the geographical wards.

Hypothetically, if Tauranga won the Lotto and there was no budget, what big-ticket item would you want for the city? Excluding infrastructure, like roads and water services and housing.

The creation and improvement of green spaces and recreational facilities in and around our communities, so that there are accessible and beautiful public recreational spaces within walking distance of all homes in the community.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.