Watch NZH Local Focus: Whakatane mayor "it was marketing"

Ingrid Jellick

Tony Bonne has won his fourth term as Whakatane District mayor.

He says his top priority as mayor is "residential growth", including a lifestyle retirement village which he's been working on since 2010.

"We've been losing too many of our people to Tauranga which has got a lot of lifestyle retirement villages," Mr Bonne said.

Reflecting on the reduced winning margin this election, he said communicating more with the public could be a solution "to make sure they know what we're doing."

He says that any development of Whakatane Harbour in the future needs to consider everyone involved, and there needs to be consideration for the fact there "are some problems that we'll always have with a river mouth."

"Our council have been very proactive in the last few years about the harbour. But the biggest thing that we need to work with is the Iwi, Ngāti Awa are the guardians of the river, that's their rohe. So we want to work closely with Ngāti Awa to make sure that we can improve the harbour for all usage," Mr Bonne said.

Mr Bonne says he is also focused on welcoming the two new councillors into the team.

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