Editorial: Too late for public party

Let's track the big screen issue. Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby does his own vox pop and finds a strong public interest to erect a screen on The Strand waterfront and view the closing stages of the Rugby World Cup.

There's hordes of visitors and locals wanting to celebrate the exciting rugby at a party central, just like they are doing in many other towns around the country.

Mr Crosby suggests the matches can be screened from the quarter-finals onwards, starting this weekend. That'll be the day, say most of the Scrooge-like councillors.

Councillor Terry Molloy works diligently in the background to get a plan going. He becomes a lone voice among his colleagues.

The council meets twice without making a real decision. Mr Crosby, two weeks after his vox pop, goes quiet.

Where was the leadership?

The big screen proposal is now down to the final week taking in the semifinals and final - despite the fact that New Zealand's biggest ever sporting event has been going nearly a month.

At their meetings, the councillors spend more time debating and finding reasons not to do anything rather than nutting out a solution. Even Mr Crosby said the council had some fat because its funding for hosting teams (Samoa, Fiji and Russia) was coming in under budget by at least $30,000.

But the councillors, on Monday, voted for a miserly $10,000 to be allocated for a big screen. They didn't even decide a site for a party central. Instead they shrugged and passed the onus of organising something onto the commercial sector. Yeah right!

What was all the fuss about? Why couldn't the councillors find a solution? Did they think of contacting their City Partners network of more than 40 companies and organisations - each contribution could have been less than $1000. Add that amount to the two Strand bar owners' offer of throwing in $8500 and you could have had some action. Sadly, the opportunity has passed. Tauranga has truly missed the boat, again.

When we first raised the issue of a big screen (Wednesday, September 14), I didn't think it would take much time to find a resolution.

We've got some fascinating matches this weekend - Australia v South Africa, France v England, Ireland v Wales, and All Blacks v Argentina but nowhere to gather in a public place and soak up the atmosphere.

Seeing how the councillors handled the big screen issue - by going round and round, receiving convoluted reports, and failing to make a final decision - lets me understand why it takes time to get projects off the ground in Tauranga. No wonder some pull their hair out over the indecision.

Maybe it's right that some people are pulling out and going back to Auckland. Tauranga has let its rugby fans down by not having a party centre so they can share in the fun and activity.