Weekly wrap-up: New climate change strategy, water reforms update
Published on 08 August 2025
Council locks in climate change strategy and emissions reduction plan
Our Council adopted its first comprehensive Climate Change Strategy, along with a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Plan, at its meeting this week.
The climate change strategy sets Council's direction for the next 30 years in three key areas:
The strategy will guide Council in addressing risks to infrastructure and services, reducing our emissions and supporting transition to low-emissions living, and partnering with communities on adaptation plans.
The strategy and proposed actions are nothing new — rather it pulls together many of the initiatives currently underway, such as progressively electrifying Council’s vehicle fleet, coastal restoration work, and climate-informed planning, which includes projects arising from the Shoreline Management Plan.
Immediate implementation of the strategy will utilise existing budgets. Further required funding is up for consideration by a future Council as part of the 2027-2037 Long Term Plan (LTP) and subsequent LTPs thereafter.
See Climate Change Strategy here
The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Plan adopted by our Council sets targets to help us meet New Zealand’s 2050 emissions reduction targets. Progress towards the target will be incremental and monitored on a three-yearly basis tied to the LTP cycle.
Ideally, we make emissions reductions as a co-benefit of other actions such as:
- progressively electrifying the vehicle fleet
- reducing long-term energy costs by generating energy ourselves (e.g. solar arrays on Council buildings)
- reducing biogenic emissions through reduced volumes of wastewater and rubbish going to landfill
- reducing staff commuter and travel emissions by hybrid work practices and use of video calls for meetings.
Our Council to keep water services in-house after LWDW decisions
Our Council voted to pursue a joint Water Services Organisation (WSO) with Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council earlier this year. However, on Tuesday 5 August, both Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty Councils chose to adopt alternative models for future water services delivery at each of their councils instead of a joint WSO involving the three councils, meaning the joint WSO will not proceed. As a result, our Thames-Coromandel District Council will now move forward with delivering water services through our own internal water services unit—an option that was also presented to the public and received 46% support during our consultation earlier this year.
Read the full release here
2025 local elections: Every vote counts - make sure yours does too
Want to hear directly from the people standing for Mayor, Council or Community Board? Join your local, community-run ‘Meet the Candidates’ events that have been shared with us. It’s a great way to learn more about who’s standing, what matters to them and how they plan to represent your area.
Meet the Candidates events here Check out the full list of candidates
Missed enrolling or updating your address? Your voting papers won’t be sent in the mail but you can still vote. Just contact our Electoral Officer on 0800 922 822 and request a special vote. Friday 10 October 2025 is the final date to enrol. Head to vote.nz for more information.
Councils and community boards - who does what?
How community boards fit into the governance mix and their relationship with councils may not be so clear to all members of our communities.
Relax, because we’ve got some resources to help you understand.
Our Pre-Election Report outlines how our Council is structured, and the relationship between elected members on our Council and our Community Boards, who make the decisions, and the staff who advise the elected members and implement their decisions. The report also provides an overview of what we do as a council, our finances, the key challenges and opportunities our district is facing and our major projects and activities.
We’ve also got our Candidate Information Handbook, information on our new Te Tara o Te Ika Māori Ward, FAQs and much more. See the links below.
Worth a look also is the guide to how councils and community boards can work better together, published a few weeks ago by LGNZ, the advocacy and support body for local government in New Zealand.
The guide is called Better together: A framework for councils and community boards. It sets out how to develop a shared understanding of roles and what matters to communities. It brings together practical tools, case studies and tips to help councils and boards work better together.
Pre-Election Report, Candidate Information Handbook, FAQs and more
Check out Better Together
Tired of Wasting Food (and Money)? Let’s Beat the Bin, together!
Our Council is helping Love Food Hate Waste NZ’s campaign to reduce food waste.
The average Kiwi household throws away up to $1,200 worth of food every year, that’s around 16 bags of perfectly good kai straight into the bin. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Waste less, save more, and feel good by taking on Love Food Hate Waste NZ’s Beat the Bin Challenge today. A super simple, three-week email challenge packed with practical tips and bite-sized actions to help you cut down food waste at home. From smarter storage to creative leftover ideas and more, you’ll learn easy ways to make your food and money go further.
Ready to Beat the Bin?
Challenges are better with mates! Rally your whānau, workmates, or flatties and see how much fun you can have saving food (and the planet) together. And just to sweeten the deal there are great prizes to win, including 1 of 3 $500 grocery vouchers when you complete the challenge in August, and lots of spot prizes along the way too!
Sign up for free here
Growing green futures in our schools
From planting native trees to caring for worm farms, our local tamariki are leading the way in sustainability thanks to the Enviroschools Programme, funded by our Waste Levy Fund. Tamariki are supported to plan, design and carry out sustainability actions that matter to them and their communities. Guided by Māori perspectives and celebrating cultural diversity, this hands-on learning connects tamariki with their environment and inspires real-world change.
The Paper4Trees programme sees schools and preschools rewarded with a native tree for every two cubic metres of paper and cardboard they recycle. Meanwhile, the Zero Waste Education programme has been educating children about the topic of sustainable resource use since 1993. This award-winning programme is offered to schools throughout our Thames-Coromandel District to students in years 1-8 each year. Additionally, there are three units for preschools.
The Whangamatā Playcentre whānau (pictured above) have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this programme over the past two years. "Our tamariki have learned so much from Whaea Lenny and Harriet (the puppet), especially about caring for our tiger noke (worms) and understanding rubbish and recycling. By tending to our worm farm and reducing our waste, our tamariki are also learning to care for Papatūānuku and growing their understanding of kaitiakitanga. A big thank you to TCDC for funding this valuable programme."
Together, these initiatives are helping grow a generation of environmentally aware young people - one worm farm, recycling bin and native tree at a time.
Find out more
Hauraki Māori Business Awards
The Inaugural Hauraki Māori Business Awards aims to celebrate excellence, innovation and resilience within Māori enterprise. By providing a platform, the organisers are aiming to showcase and elevate our businesses locally and nationally.
This kaupapa not only recognises success but also fosters growth, creates new opportunities for procurement and investment, and reinforces the interconnectedness of iwi businesses within our rohe.
By uplifting Māori enterprise, we are ensuring sustainable prosperity for future generations.
Where: Silver Fern Farms Events Centre, 44 Stanley Avenue, Te Aroha.
When: Friday 17 October 2025. Doors open at 5.30pm
Have a business and want to enter? Want to attend?
See more here
Creative Communities Scheme
Applications for our Council's Creative Communities Scheme are now open, so be sure to get yours in by Friday 29 August.
The scheme, backed by Creative New Zealand, aims to increase participation in the arts, broaden the range and diversity of the arts available to communities and enhance and strengthen the local creative sector.
Got a project in mind? If it meets one or more of the funding criteria below, we’d love to hear about it.
- Access and participation – The project will create opportunities for local communities to engage with and participate in arts activities.
- Diversity – The project will support the diverse arts and cultural traditions of local communities, enriching and promoting their uniqueness and cultural diversity.
- Young people – The project will enable and encourage young people (under 18 years) to engage with and actively participate in the arts.
Find out more Fill out the online form
Boat ramp and roading updates
Two of our boat ramps will be closed for about three weeks in August while maintenance/repair works take place.
- Wyuna Bay boat ramp will be closed for the public for three weeks from 25 August.
- Long Bay boat ramp will be closed to the public for three weeks from 11 August.
Tairua Harbour responsibilities
We've worked with Waikato Regional Council and the Pāuanui Coastguard to clarify with the community who is responsible for what in Tairua Harbour, especially regarding the sandbar that can form within the harbour. See details here.
Boundary Creek Bridge deck replacement to restore two-lane access on SH2 ahead of summer
Drivers of the scenic Thames Coast Road are all too familiar with stop/go interruptions due to damage to State Highway 25 (SH25) in recent years, but one disruption will soon become a distant memory with the replacement of the Boundary Creek Bridge deck.
The bridge itself, wedged tight between the cliffs and the sea, has been reduced to a single lane since 2023 while it patiently waits for a new bridge deck and repairs to its abutments.
“Drivers will be pleased to know a new bridge deck and strengthening work is planned to be completed ahead of summer, meaning SH25 will once again revert to 2 lanes here,” says Darryl Coalter, Regional Manager of Infrastructure Delivery for NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA).
Read the full update from NZTA here
Details about road works taking place around our district here
Caring for Our coast
Around 1900 native plants were planted at Pūkaki (Cooks Beach) this week by local volunteers and a group of future leaders from across Aotearoa New Zealand.
The plants will provide vital enhancement of back dune areas as part of the larger project to restore the foredunes, enabling them to self-repair after coastal erosion.
The Leadership Training Programme teamed up with the Cooks Beach Care Group (celebrating 15 years of beach care), our Council’s Coastal Restoration team, Ngāti Hei and Coast Care to provide participants with a first-hand experience of positive action to protect our taio (environment).
Upcoming dune planting events
Due to the recent weather, the Whangamatā Pipi Road dune planting event has been rescheduled to Saturday 9 August. Meet at Beach Access 11, 9:30am.
RSVP to samantha.telfar@tcdc.govt.nz or info@whangadunes.org.nz.
Please bring covered footwear, warm/rain-appropriate clothing, your own water bottle and your favourite gloves if you have them. Planting equipment and refreshments will be provided. Bring a friend or the whānau and help protect and restore our beautiful coastline - we look forward to seeing you on the dunes.
Thames Library wins Netsafe award
Thames Library is officially home of New Zealand's best Netsafety Week Library display. We recently won Netsafe's nationwide Netsafety Week Library display competition.
Netsafe supports people across New Zealand to have safe and positive online experiences, by providing free support, advice and education to all ages. Netsafety Week this year celebrated Power in Partnerships - highlighting the impact of working together to build safer, more inclusive online spaces across New Zealand.
Every week, our District Libraries play a frontline role in getting our community online safely - we provide free WiFi and computer access, help out with printing and scanning, provide practical advice on where and how to get things done on the internet and much more. Our team was proud to support Netsafety Week with our display and thrilled to take out the top prize!
Learn more about our libraries
Dogs waiting for their forever homes
The dog pictured is named "Taken", a beautiful male Huntaway-cross. Taken is a very sweet and playful fella, and we think he would make a wonderful family pet.
If you're interested, please complete a Dog Adoption Application, and feel free to phone us on 07 868 0200 for any questions.
Details here
Rally of Coromandel returns this August
The Rally of Coromandel returns as part of the New Zealand Rally Championship, with racing on Saturday 23 August and a Street Party kicking off festivities on Friday evening in Whitianga.
There’ll be rally stages across iconic Coromandel roads and a special spectator stage, plus a chance to see the action up close at Rally HQ at Mercury Bay Sports Park.
A colouring competition is open to local primary school students, winners will ride in a rally car!
Note: Road closures will be in place on 22-23 August.
Find out more
Calling all artist for this year's Artbeat Spring Festival
Creative Coromandel/He Mana Toi Moehau Trust is the central arts network for the Coromandel Peninsula and the Hauraki rohe.
They’ve got you covered with the latest arts news, events, and what’s going on.
They advocate on behalf of the creative industries in our area and offer opportunities and resources to foster our creatives and communities.
Check out their latest August 2025 Pānui: News from around the rohe on what’s been happening in the creative industries. Read all about Tekla-Smith in New York, the artbeat is back, Corrosive Moses, a Fauré Festival, and Lizzy Leckie Mapping Colour.
Read here
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