For immediate release: Thursday 11 March 2010 Tai Eru has been sworn in to sit on Environment Bay of Plenty's Ōkurei Constituency seat. The seat was left vacant following the sudden death of Hawea Vercoe last year. Mr Eru will represent the Ōkurei Constituency until the next Local Government election on Saturday 9 October this year when the seat will be open to be contested. Following today's council meeting, Chairman John Cronin said he was delighted to see Mr Eru return to the council table. "Tai has many years of council experience, both at a regional and district level, which will be valuable to us as we head towards the election later this year," Chairman Cronin said. Addressing the meeting, Mr Eru said the environment, family and the community need balance and harmony. "We all understand this and we need to strive to improve our performance," he said. "We all understand this and we need to strive to improve our performance." He said economic growth for the region must be sustainable environmentally, socially, economically and culturally. "To achieve this we need to harmonise and balance commercial interests with the best scientific inputs, with the wisdom developed over centuries by the original Māori carers of the land," Mr Eru said. "But please, do not expect that to happen over a few meetings. The Māori way is a consultative process that cannot be hurried to meet an artificial 'milestone programme'." Mr Eru was the highest non-successful candidate for the Okurei Constituency seat at the 2007 election. Tai was also previously a regional councillor with Environment Bay of Plenty from 1998 to 2001 for the Rotorua Constituency, and for the Ōkurei Constituency from 2004 to 2007. His appointment was made with strong support from members of the Ōkurei Constituency, who had written to Council supporting the move.