Tauranga City Council and its partners are planning a cocktail party to celebrate the transformation of the city. Photo / 123rf
Tauranga City Council and its partners are planning a cocktail party to celebrate the transformation of the city. Photo / 123rf
A private cocktail party is being held on Tauranga’s waterfront next week as part of the council’s plans to re-establish a city partners forum and to “celebrate the city’s transformation and progress”.
Tauranga City Council is hosting the function at the newly renovated Cargo Shed on May 10, having invited150 people.
However, the list of invitees remains secret with the council citing privacy reasons.
Council general manager of city developments and partnerships Gareth Wallis said the event was organised “with support from the Tauranga Business Chamber and funded jointly by council and a number of city-wide partners”.
However, the close-off date for invitation responses had not yet been reached, “so we are unable to provide an attendance number at this time or final costs for council and partners sponsoring the dinner event”, Wallis said.
Wallis said the event was being held because the council was responding to “interest from community and city partners to come together and celebrate the city’s transformation and progress”.
Wallis said that while the council distributed the invitations, the list of recipients included people invited by event sponsors. The council looked forward to recognising recent achievements across the city “with many of our key stakeholders and business and community partners”.
“This event will provide an opportunity for community, business and civic leaders and key partner organisations to come together to recognise and celebrate the significant achievements made across the city in recent years.”
Wallis said the council had come a long way in developing Tauranga and there was “still a way to go”.
Gareth Wallis, Tauranga City Council general manager of city development and partnerships. Photo / Alex Cairns
“To achieve our goal of creating a world-class, liveable city, we need the help of our key city stakeholders and to that end, the council is seeking to facilitate the re-establishment of a City Partners Forum, similar to the former Project Tauranga forum. This event represents an initial step towards bringing that city partners plan to life.”
Business chamber chief executive Matt Cowley said it had been involved in the City Partners programme for years.
“In the spirit of the city partners programme, we were able to share some event expertise.”
Cowley said he was unable to comment further, referring queries to the council for more event information such as registrations and the invitation list as “we haven’t been involved in the details”.
The Cargo Shed on Drive Crescent, Tauranga, where a cocktail party celebrating the city's progress is expected to be held. Photo / Alex Cairns
The function comes a week after the council agreed to increase residential rates 7 per cent in the 2024-34 Long-term Plan, which included ongoing development of several projects such as Te Manawataki o Te Papa that was subject of concern from some ratepayer groups.
Other key projects included in the city’s transformation have also been criticised.
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
