Straight from city council A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris

The term ‘iconic' is used to describe almost any proposed structure to be built with public money these days. Few, if any, live up to the meaning of the word, however our neighbouring Western Bay of plenty District Council's proposed cycle bridge over the Wairoa River certainly does.

Back in 2015 the bridge was to cost $1.5m with TCC contributing $400,000. TCC initially rejected this because the proposal wasn't detailed enough to warrant the spend. After a strong turnout from the cycle community in support, and further information from WBOPDC we then allocated the $400,000.

By early 2016 the cost of the bridge had risen to $2.5-3m. Then, as more funding was obtained from government and community trusts, this grew to $6.5m late last year. Now it has blown out to $7.1m and Western Bay Mayor Gary Webber has asked Tauranga City Councillors for another $600,000 from Tauranga ratepayers.

We also had several excellent submissions from cyclists about the state of our city commuter cycle network. Many parts are not joined up; the network is a mix of on-road, off-road and missing cycleways. Dedicated off-road cycleways are reasonably cheap to build (council in most cases already owns the land). The TCC $600,000 goes a long way because it's matched by another $600,000 from the government. Cycleways will never cater for most commuters but any cars off the road at peak times helps. Would you prefer us to fund the bridge, the city network or neither? Let me know at email steve.morris@tauranga.govt.nz or phone 021 519 941.