Councillor and mayoral hopeful Don Thwaites wants to sell Western Bay of Plenty District Council's head office if elected. Photo / John Borren
Councillor and mayoral hopeful Don Thwaites wants to sell Western Bay of Plenty District Council's head office if elected. Photo / John Borren
Local body elections are under way and eight hopefuls are vying for the Western Bay of Plenty’s top job. Local Democracy Reporting quizzed the mayoral candidates about key issues ahead of the October 11 election. We will publish those stories over the coming days.
Quick bio
Name: Don Thwaites
Age: 63
Resides: Te Puna
Profession: Contractor, orchardist, director, current councillor
Political party affiliations: None
Family: Married with three adult children.
If Don Thwaites iselected Western Bay of Plenty’s mayor, he wants to sell the council’s head office in Tauranga to save the $163,000 rates bill.
The Western Bay of Plenty District Council office at Barkes Corner in Greerton has a capital value of $20.85 million and the rates for 2025 are $163,877.
Thwaites is serving his sixth term on council and said the Tauranga office could be replaced with one in Ōmokoroa and another in Te Puke.
He believed the council could build the two new offices and still have money left over from the sale.
He said the rates bill in the Western Bay would be half that of Tauranga for a similar property.
Some of the 2.45ha of land was designated for the future State Highway 29 upgrade, so Thwaites wanted to pre-empt the sale and “get out early”
Thwaites lives in Te Puna and is married with three adult children. The 63-year-old is a contractor, orchardist, director and has no political affiliations.
His other priorities if elected mayor included resizing the council staff once water services had been transitioned to a planned new joint entity.
“Resizing council and getting rates back under control because we can’t average 8% like our current long-term plan forecasts.”
He said he would also work on the council’s relationships with other Bay of Plenty councils.
A long-term goal for his mayoralty would be working with NZ Transport Agency to get the Katikati bypass built.
The bypass was also a deal-breaker that Thwaites wanted included in a regional deal with the Government.
“If it’s not in the regional deal, I won’t sign it if I’m the new mayor, we’re out.”
A nice-to-have on his agenda would be swimming pools throughout the district and a new library in Te Puke, he said.
“Very little investment’s gone into Te Puke, they have been patient.”
A new library was already in the council’s long-term plan, so it was achievable, especially if the council sold the Barkes Corner office, Thwaites said.
Don Thwaites wants a new library in Te Puke if he's elected. Photo / Stuart Whitaker
“Whether libraries are nice-to-have or an essential, who knows, some would debate it.”
When it came to councils amalgamating, Thwaites said there was a place for Tauranga City Council and Western Bay to share services such as building services and the water infrastructure organisation that would be set up as part of Local Water Done Well.
“I still see a real place for localism.”
There was a strong case for the Western Bay council to stay because the district’s towns and communities had their own aspirations and that could be lost in a bigger organisation, he said.
“I just see staying as Western Bay in the medium to long term as best.”
Thwaites supported Māori wards for councils because central Government had Māori electorates, and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council had included them since 2004.
