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Angry Whakatane residents have labelled a plan to move the regional council's headquarters out of the town to Tauranga as "suspect" and "suicidal".
Environment Bay of Plenty councillors felt the wrath of some of more than 550 individuals and groups who oppose the move in a submissions hearing at the Whakatane headquarters yesterday.
"This move will tear the guts out of Whakatane," Robert Byrne, a former mayor of the town, told the council. "It is unjustified in so many ways."
If the move goes ahead, Whakatane and the Eastern Bay face heavy job losses and the loss of $4.3 million to the local economy annually.
Under the plan, 130 staff would be required to relocate to Tauranga and a further 57 full-time-equivalent jobs would be lost in the wider community.
The cost of the move to ratepayers has been estimated at $23 million, about $2 million of which would be spent on staff redundancies. Most of the money - $15.4 million - would pay for a new headquarters in Tauranga.
Environment Bay of Plenty says the move is necessary to fulfil regional leadership roles and functions under the Local Government Act 2002, and that it is better able to fulfil those obligations in Tauranga - the region's fastest-growing centre.
Councillors voted for the move 11 to three in December, but their support dwindled slightly, to nine in support, in a vote in March.
Yesterday, Mr Byrne - who has lived in Whakatane all his life - urged the councillors to reconsider by thinking about the impact on council staff.
"The people you employ here are EBOP," he said. "It just burns me up thinking about what is going to happen to our staff."
Many submitters argued that the council was ignoring environmental responsibilities and wasting money, including $91,000 already spent on a Deloitte report assessing the move.
Ohiwa Harbour Margins Society representative Barry Marshall said the council's main purpose was to be a guardian of natural resources and the money going into the proposal and the move could be better spent.
"This is literally stealing from the environment," he said.
Eddie Vowles, a resident of the area for 38 years, said Whakatane was the region's geographical heart and it was concerning to see the council trying to expand outside its environmental role to a social one.
But council chairman John Cronin told the Herald that Environment Bay of Plenty's traditional role had changed and it was no longer simply focused on rivers and drains.
Mr Cronin and other councillors who live in Tauranga and Rotorua have been accused of concocting the plan to save themselves long drives to Whakatane.
But several submitters said technology such as email and video-conferencing meant drives could be avoided, while others questioned the social and cultural impact of relocation.
Malcolm Whitaker, one of the council's two Eastern Bay representatives and an opponent of the plan, told the Herald that council staff were among the area's most active members of sport clubs, churches and community organisations.
"All that intellectual property is lost [if the move goes ahead]," he said.
Nancy Nielson of the Whakatane District Community Arts Council said council staff and their families were also heavily involved in local arts.
Te Runanga o Ngati Awa said the council would be ignoring its Treaty obligations to local iwi by relocating.
Environment Bay of Plenty received 740 submissions on the move, the vast majority in opposition, and on March 29 more than 1000 people took to the streets of Whakatane in protest at the plan.
The hearings began in Rotorua and Tauranga on Monday, and continue today and tomorrow in Whakatane.
Councillors will decide whether to proceed with the move on May 31.
