Graffiti near the Tauranga Harbour Bridge. Photo / Andrew Warner
Graffiti near the Tauranga Harbour Bridge. Photo / Andrew Warner
Graffiti, overgrown grass and "rubbish everywhere".
That's 69-year-old Kevin Smith's view of the state of the city. The Tauranga resident has joined calls for public areas to be cleaned up as the city prepares to welcome back cruise ship passengers.
"Tauranga used to be a really picturesque city. I find that it's not anymore," he said.
It also comes as the first cruise ship will arrive at the Port of Tauranga on Saturday with up to 3,560 passengers on board. The Majestic Princess is the first cruise ship of the summer season to arrive in New Zealand since borders closed in 2020.
However, the Tauranga City Council says its contractors were "working hard" and maintenance around large road improvement projects could take longer due to safety protocols.
Graffiti near the Tauranga Harbour Bridge. Photo / Andrew Warner
Smith said he would go for a walk to Dive Cr and under the harbour bridge most mornings.
"It's just full of graffiti, there's rubbish everywhere - it doesn't look to be any tidying up done," he said.
"That's a main part of the town and you've got a hotel there where you have a lot of people coming and staying... and you go for a walk... and it's like a Third World city."
Smith said there were people living under the bridge, "hunks of cardboard" and "old boxes".
"I think the town has got scruffier. Places are more an eyesore than they ever were before... With cruise ship passengers coming back into this area, it doesn't look good.
"It's not the Tauranga that I grew up in."
Smith was in Rotorua two weeks ago, where the lakefront was looking "fantastic".
"They've done a heap of work and we saw people in the government gardens, even though it was raining, were out mowing lawns and trimming and tidying. I just don't see that happening in Tauranga."
Graffiti near the Tauranga Harbour Bridge. Photo / Andrew Warner
Mount Maunganui resident Phil Bourne, 65, said areas near the harbour bridge were looking "unloved and tatty" with litter and graffiti.
However, Bourne acknowledged the work the council had been doing opposite Mount Maunganui College which would "certainly improve things".
He encouraged people to use the Antenno app where people could report "everything from graffiti to over-filled beach bins".
"They're on the job almost within 24 hours - it's pretty impressive," Bourne said.
"A lot of it's to do with the people... to make the place look better than it is."
According to the council's website, Antenno is an app that makes it easy for people to submit feedback or report issues such as a damaged footpath or abandoned car.
Tauranga City Council creative and digital community relations team leader Harry Mayer-Singh said issues with roading and footpaths were the most common issues reported via the app, with a combination of graffiti, vandalism, rubbish and recycling making up more than half of all reports.
"We appreciate it when people take the time to get in touch, and Antenno is an easy way for people to connect with us."
Downtown Tauranga chairman Brian Berry said he believed the council's maintenance of their properties had been "a bit underdone in recent years".
However, he was aware there were "near-term plans" to improve the Dive Cr area.
"I would think that the works that they're going to be undertaking in the short-term should improve the situation quite a bit," Berry said.
Graffiti near the Tauranga Harbour Bridge. Photo / Andrew Warner
Tauranga City Council transport network operations manager Tony Bonetti said the arrival of spring combined with recent wet weather had its contractors "working hard" to keep up with "significant seasonal growth".
"Maintenance can take longer when working around large road improvement projects, as we have a duty of care to contractors mowing areas next to roads to ensure their safety," Bonetti said.
"They need to carefully manage traffic while maintenance work takes place, while minimising the knock-on impact on traffic, [which] means this work is done less frequently than normal."
The council was responsible for about 665 kilometres of roads, 765km of footpaths and more than a million square metres of berms around the city.
Bonetti said the council aimed to deal with people's concerns "as quickly as possible" and asked residents to report any areas in need to maintenance.
He said graffiti was a "serious crime" which affected the whole community and required a "strong community response".
The council provided a free graffiti removal service for residents and small business property owners who were unable to remove it themselves.
Graffiti that was racist or contained bad language should be reported to the council immediately so it could remove it. Serious vandalism should be reported to the police, Bonetti said.
Tauranga City Council service requests created from customer contact between June 1, 2021 and May 31, 2022 and assigned to the transport team:
Between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022 and assigned to the parks and leisure team: - Mowing reserves: 302 - Prickles (grass excluding McLaren Falls): 17 - Bush, weeds and revegetation including spraying: 251 - Mowing: 14 complaints
Costs for cleaning up after tagging and illegal graffiti: - 2020/21 financial year: $156,473.01 - 2021/22 financial year: $160,466.33 - this did not include removal from the NZTA network. The increase was due to extra workload and inflation. - 2022/23 financial year to September 30: $45,165.00 - not including removal from the NZTA network
