John Cronin BOP Regional Council Chairman www.boprc.govt.nz

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Annual Plan for the coming year has now been adopted – and we've worked hard to achieve a general rates increase of just 3.5 per cent.

Staff have found ways to work more efficiently through our Doing Business Better programme; and we've set an overall efficiency and savings target of $500,000 for 2013/14.

Priorities for the year include work on the Tauranga Harbour catchment, the on-going Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes Programme; and regional water management and river scheme sustainability programmes. We will continue to work on integrated regional planning to manage the region's growth.

We'll continue to support qualifying new small-scale sewerage reticulation schemes to improve water quality throughout the region; and will review our policy to ensure we provide fair funding across the different schemes. Additional funding has been provided for a region-wide Flood Risk Management Strategy Project.

We are supporting our communities with funding for important activities. Surf Lifesaving has received $10,000 as a contribution to its operational costs; Envirohub, formerly Tauranga's Environment Centre, has received assistance towards its Environmental Network and Urban Greenspace projects.

We're pleased with how we've been able to manage our finances and projects prudently – and deliver on the community's expectations while looking for every opportunity to make savings.