Local Focus: Getting to know Kat Macmillan, new Regional Councillor

Welcome Bay resident Kat Macmillan has been elected as a first-term councillor to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, representing the Tauranga General constituency.

She brings 20 years of management experience to the table, having previously been the Heart Foundation's regional manager and CEO of Tauranga Riding for Disabled.

Macmillan is also a leadership coach who holds a science degree and co-founded a local design and manufacturing business.

In this Local Focus interview, Macmillan said regional climate and biodiversity challenges were the main reasons she decided to run for the regional council.

"Our kids have grown up and it felt like now's the time to really commit to local government and particularly the regional council with this climate change and biodiversity that we're going to have to navigate," she said.

Fixing the region's public transport system is Macmillan's main priority.

"For the Tauranga constituency, and to a certain degree the wider Bay of Plenty, we've got to have an overhaul of our public transport system," she said.

One solution Macmillan would like to explore is 'on-demand' services, where public transport adapts to where the need is, rather than it travelling along a set route where nobody gets on it.

Rapid transport corridors for buses are another option to be explored, she said.

In her first term, Macmillan hopes to solve some of the region's biodiversity challenges such as cleaning up the waterways and protecting the ocean.