Our Direction

Our Direction framework

All our work programmes contribute to achieving the vision for Tauranga through a combination of the ‘what’ and the ‘how’.

The council’s Our Direction framework is visually represented by te kupenga (a type of fishing net), which weaves together our five community outcomes (what we are trying to achieve for our communities) and three approaches (how we will do everything):

Te Kupenga

Our five community outcomes

What we are trying to achieve for our communities – forming the vertical strands of our framework, as shown in Te Kupenga diagram above.

Current key priorities

Council is focusing on key priorities where we want to make significant change to timely or urgent issues. 

Delivery for these key priorities will contribute to the community outcomes through a combination of some primary strategies and/or action and investment plans. 

Our key priorities… 

• Enable Housing  
• Address Transport  
• Enhance our Environment 
• Deliver services for our community 

Council have also agreed the following underpinning principles for the 2027-2037 Long-term Plan: 

• Look after what we've got 
• Accountable and transparent 
• Value for money 
• Everyone pays a fair share 
• Growth pays for growth 
• Bold and innovative 

Resources

Document library

Our Direction -  adopted 12 December 2022 (1mb pdf)
Where strategies and plans fit - 31 January 2024 (246kb pdf)
Outcome Measures Baseline Report June 2024 (512kb pdf)

References section

12/12/22 Council - adopted Our Direction framework and high-level content (agenda item 11.4)
5/9/2022 Council – Strategic framework and draft strategies – consultation feedback (agenda item 11.1)
13/6/2022 Council – adopted A Vision for Tauranga (agenda item 11.2)
28/6/2021 Strategy, Finance and Risk Committee - project approval (agenda item 9.2)
16/6/2020 Policy Committee - project concept approval (agenda item 8.2)

Related information

Strategies and plans
Primary strategies
Action and Investment Plans
Contributing documents

Our three approaches

How we will do everything – forming the horizontal strands of our framework, as shown in Te Kupenga diagram above.

The structure of our framework

Primary strategies

For each of the community outcomes Council has one primary strategy that identifies:

•    what success looks like
•    what Council needs to do
•    what actions and investments need to be made.

There are also two holistic strategies which contribute across all our community outcomes.  These are the joint sub-regional SmartGrowth Strategy and the iwi-owned Tauranga Moana Iwi Management Plan.

Action and Investment Plans

For each of the primary strategies the specific tactics, projects or deliverables that are needed are outlined in Action and Investment Plans. Action and Investment Plans are largely focused on Council deliverables although some may also include actions that are a shared responsibility.

Not everything in an Action and Investment Plan can necessarily be funded/delivered immediately.

Action and Investment Plans are taken into consideration when Council is determining its funding in the Long-term Plan and Annual Plans. 

Contributing documents

Contributing documents are other Council documents that contribute to the strategies or action plans. Not formally part of Council's Our Direction, but contribute to any number of plans, maybe joint or Council-specific, and any level or type of document, e.g. Tauranga City Council design guidelines, Tauranga City Council Reserves Management Plan etc.