Submissions are currently open for Tauranga City Council’s Long-term Plan (LTP). The Council wants to hear your views on their proposals and how you think they should pay for them. 

As a business owner, no doubt you’ve got some good ideas about how to support the growth and development of our city, so it’s important you have a say – but if you’ve never made a submission before, it can seem a daunting task.  

We asked our Events & Sponsorship Manager Anne Pankhurst, who is also a former TCC Councillor, to shed some light on the LTP, the process and how to make a good submission.  

The LTP is a statutory plan that local government is required to write every three years, which outlines the Council’s programme for the next 10 years.  

It has a summation of the proposed projects, the costs of those projects and the timeline, which when approved allows Council to strike the rate for the next year and the following nine years. 

It is required to give options and a very clear financial picture of the expenditure and the why or logic to this plan.   

All of this makes it very important that we submit to the plan, both in writing and then verbally. You are not required to present your verbal presentation, but you can’t give a verbal presentation unless you have written a submission. 

While it may not appear so, Councillors – or in TCC’s case commissioners – take this very seriously, and it is through these submissions that they can (and do) change their mind, or change the priority of projects.   

They want to know what matters to you and why. They are looking for those community solutions, right down to your neighbourhood, as well as its impact on the wider community as they are required to govern for the greater good. 

Here’s some simple tips for making a submission: 

• Read the LTP or the summary document, and get an idea what is proposed. It helps to be more focussed in your submission. 
• Make notes on your thoughts. Do some research on those notes or parts of the LTP that are important to you. 
• Keep your thinking succinct and on point. 

• Think of it as a problem  – possibly for you, or the wider community. Note the problem and come up with a potential solution. Don’t just blurt out the problem without the background information. 
• Go to the website and file your submission (follow the steps provided).    
• If you are thinking of speaking at the hearings, then make notes and be sure to give background context. Use the speaking slot to speak more widely on your issue. Don’t read from your submission; consider it read. 

The most important element of this is that you have a say. If you don’t speak, you can’t be heard.   

You can read the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce’s submission here.