Search for EBOP site as Tauranga move confirmed

By GRAHAM SKELLERN
The Bay's regional council will begin searching for an outlying site in Tauranga after finally deciding to move its head office from Whakatane, its home for 18 years.
Environment Bay of Plenty councillors voted 9-5 in favour of the relocation when they met yesterday to confirm the latest annual plan.
Chief executive Bill Bayfield has formed a project team which will make its first report on possible new sites to the next council meeting in six weeks. Environment BOP wants to move to Tauranga within two years.
Council chairman John Cronin told the Bay of Plenty Times the preference was building new headquarters rather than leasing existing premises.
"We don't want a high rise building; we'd rather it be low rise and complementary to the environment," said Mr Cronin.
The building would cost about $11 million and would probably be on the outskirts of Tauranga.
"We need easy access because a lot of the team work out in the field; we don't want them sitting desk-bound in the office," he said.
Environment BOP wants to confirm its building plans and staff numbers by the end of the year.
The councillors yesterday approved an amendment to the relocation plan, that will see 100 staff transfer from Whakatane instead of the original proposal of 130. There are already 25 staff in rented premises in Tauranga.
About 70 staff will remain in Whakatane, comprising rivers and drainage, sustainable land management, hydrology and hydraulics, information services and technology, and laboratory divisions. Maori policy staff will also stay.
Mr Cronin estimated that out of the council's present staff of 220 there would be about 20 redundancies by the time the move was made.
He said the relocation would allow the regional council to serve all of its ratepayers well.
"Moving the head office to Tauranga, the leading urban centre in the Bay, will help us deal with issues faced by the region now and in the future."
A Whakatane-based focus group believes the regional council did not follow correct process and is considering appealing the relocation decision to the High Court.
At yesterday's meeting, Mr Bayfield told councillors that amendments to the plan had been agreed to by the Office of the Auditor General.
"I spoke with Audit New Zealand only this morning," Mr Bayfield said. "They have looked at the process used during the relocation proposal and have found no fault with it."
He added that an audit officer had spent three days at the Whakatane headquarters going over the whole process.
Focus Group chairwoman Jacqui Hughes, and former Environment BOP councillor, said that whether the process had been followed was a matter of opinion.
"We [the focus group] are currently undertaking due diligence regarding the process and the cost benefit ourselves," she said.