Haumarutanga rori - pakeke

Road safety - adults

The Travel Safe team work in the community to reduce accidents and improve road safety.

Young Driver Workshop

Free young driver workshops are aimed at road users aged between 16 and 24, who hold a current learner or restricted driver licence. Participants will leave with improved knowledge, confidence, and skills.

Each workshop includes:

A 60-minute one-on-one driving lesson with a certified instructor
Waka Kotahi NZTA roadworthy vehicle check (what to check to ensure your vehicle is safe and roadworthy)
Driver behaviour awareness (speed, impairment, restraints, distraction, and fatigue
Awareness session on sharing the road with heavy vehicles

Parents/caregivers are strongly encouraged to attend but it’s not compulsory. The four-hour workshops are held during school term holidays, usually between 9am and 1pm.

Drive has everything you need to prepare for your learner, restricted and full licence tests.

Visit the Drive website

Young driver workshop

Car Restraints

Looking for support around car seat restraints? Contact one of our local car seat technicians at travelsafeschools@tauranga.govt.nz. We offer free car seat installations, checks, and will help answer any questions or concerns regarding your car restraint.

Carseat installation

Parking behaviour

Drop off and pick up are busy times that pose a safety risk at the school gate. Travel Safe help schools to communicate things like parking time limits, drop off and pick up zones, parking over the kerb and other safety risks at the school gate. We deliver an in-school parking and safety programme named Peaceful Parker, and partner with council parking officers to do school visits when requested by schools or the community.

Blindzone Workshops

Blindzone workshops allow people to see the world from a truck driver’s point of view. Through a series of practical scenarios, participants will learn where to place themselves so they are visible to truck drivers and will leave with more awareness and confidence on the road.

For more on Blindzone and cycling around heavy vehicles visit Share the Road.

Blindzone workshop

Be Bright, Be Safe, Be Seen

This winter visibility programme reminds cyclists, walkers, runners, and scooter riders to have lights, bright clothing, and reflective gear if they are out and about during early mornings, evenings, and at other times of low light and poor visibility.

Whether commuting to work or school, being active for fun or fitness, or popping down to the local shops, people should take extra care and keep safe by being fully visible on roads and paths.

All cyclists are encouraged to wear high-visibility clothing and ensure their front light, rear light and rear red reflector are all working correctly and are clean.

View the official New Zealand code for cycling for more information.

Tauranga City Council improves consenting performance with more improvement to come

Tauranga City Council has made good progress in improving its consenting performance for the 2024/25 financial year, but acknowledges there is still room for improvement.

Despite economic challenges throughout the country, application volumes overall have remained steady, which is a positive sign of continued growth in Tauranga.

A report presented at the City Delivery Committee meeting on Wednesday highlighted efficiency gains in processing both building and resource consents on application volumes that were slightly lower than the year prior.

Tauranga City Council City Delivery Committee Chair and Deputy Mayor, Jen Scoular acknowledged the progress made, while also noting the need to keep making improvements.

“The team have worked hard to refine processes, and it’s good to see tangible results. Going forward we have asked the team to keep a focus on making consenting faster and more efficient for our community.

“Council gave staff a steer to set a plan that engages with the construction sector, to better understand the blockages and issues. Staff were also asked to look at comparison times with other councils to help define what good looks like.”

Staff confirmed they are committed to refining the Building Consent processes further, and continue to enhance its systems, including piloting a new “reference consent” system where the team can pre-approve simple repeat buildings. This is expected to increase the speed of consenting for these buildings, but also free up staff time to speed up other more complex applications.

Tauranga City Council staff are gearing up for the next IANZ audit in September 2025 after achieving its best Building Control Authority audit result in over a decade in 2023.

Jen emphasised the importance of adapting to future legislative changes and noted that while council is moving in the right direction, consents will remain an area of focus.

“Upcoming reforms in the Building Act and Resource Management Act will bring further changes to how consents are processed. Changes being proposed by Central Government will take away some of the risk adversity we are seeing, as a number of activities will no longer need consent.”

Building Consents:

1,471 applications received year-to-date, showing a slight decline compared to previous years.
Compliance with the 20-day statutory timeframe has improved to 82%, up from 75% in 2023/24 and significantly higher than the low of 35% in April 2022.
Median processing time has dropped to 14 days, matching national benchmarks.
Reliance on external contractors has reduced from 60% to just 18%, signalling strong internal capability growth.
Inspection wait-times remain under two days, with 97% of Code Compliance Certificates issued on time.

Resource Consents:

Application volumes remain stable, with a 22% increase in subdivision consents suggesting future development opportunities.
On-time decision-making has increased to 96% compliance year-to-date, a significant improvement from 38% in July 2022.
The average processing time is 56 working days, with 31 days typically spent on hold.
External consultant use has decreased due to strengthened in-house expertise.

Image caption

Deputy Mayor Jen Scoular.

Posted: Jun 6, 2025,