Big plans to improve Welcome Bay

Park upgrades, a better shopping centre and a new "hub" for young people are included in a bold plan to breathe new life into the Welcome Bay area.
The Welcome Bay community plan was launched before about 50 residents and businesspeople yesterday afternoon, three years after the project was conceived.
The plan is split into four main areas - social development, business development, environmental issues and youth and culture - and covers an area including Maungatapu, Hairini, Ohauiti and Ngapeke.
It calls for a cleaner, greener suburb and the setting up of an environmental focus group, community clean-up days, upgrades to Owens Park and Tye Park, a new community garden and recycling depots throughout the suburb.
The suburb would be made safer by a new zero-tolerance plan for drugs, violence, alcohol abuse, problem gambling and vandalism, as well as better lighting and security, better accessibility and traffic calming measures.
Local business would be boosted by a new network, an improved shopping centre and a feasibility study looking for "future commercial opportunities" such as a supermarket.
The plan aimed to create more jobs for local residents, and this would be assisted by a new support network or centre for the unemployed.
For Welcome Bay's young people, a new youth centre could be established, as well as more events and better counselling services.
Market days, garden competitions, school holidays and a "Welcome Bay pride day" and more interaction with the community marae would help unite the suburb.
Project secretary Delwyn Walker told yesterday's gathering at the Welcome Bay Community Hall that the suburb's population, numbered at 7000 in the 2006 Census, would grow to 10,000 by 2021.
She said development, which had surged ahead in other areas of the city, had "slackened off" in Welcome Bay in recent times.
A negative perception of the suburb had also emerged.
"We need to really take hold as individuals and say to others living outside of this suburb in Tauranga that 'yes, I live in Welcome Bay, and what a great place it is to live'."
Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby praised the project team and invited them to bring the plan to council. After an initial round of community consultation, the plan would be reported back to local residents each year, and reviewed every three years.