Editorial: Cycling into a bit of a stoush

Councillor Mike Williams

You can understand why Western Bay District councillors might be annoyed by Tauranga's refusal to contribute to a proposed $4.5 million cycleway from Omokoroa to Otumoetai.

After all, the Western Bay council has already committed $300,000 a year towards its $1.5 million section of the cycleway.

In contrast, Tauranga council opposed paying $500,000 towards the $1.5 million needed to build the city leg of the cycleway from the Wairoa River to Otumoetai. The other funding partners were the New Zealand Transport Agency and the Government's National Urban Cycleway Fund.

Western Bay District councillor Mike Williams says Tauranga's decision is short-sighted.

"I would have thought that Tauranga would be doing everything it could to encourage tourists and visitors into the city ... it just needed the funding to get the ball rolling."

It is a major setback for the project but the decision was not totally unexpected with the Bay of Plenty Community Trails Trust acknowledging it had already decided to approach major Bay corporates such as the Port of Tauranga and Trustpower for the $500,000.

If, as councillor Matt Cowley suggests, the council was faced with prospect of funding the cycleway at the expense of expanding the city's urban cycle network then they made the right decision.

There is only so much money that can be allocated to cycling and money should be spent on projects that directly benefit locals first.

Having said that, there is bound to be a lot of submissions to the council's 2015-25 Long Term Plan on this controversial decision and councillors could find themselves under considerable pressure to change their minds.