hawkesbaycouncilwatch

How to get on the television news. Do something outrageous.

Saturday night on television news we have a story about Hastings being the first to have a policy banning smoking in Parks and Open spaces.
Where on earth are we going.Hastings Council says they know it’s something they can’t enforce but have implemented this ridiculous measure to take a positive stance against smoking.

If the council does not have enough to do without becoming a nanny council.Even Mayor Yule with his right wing background seemed happy to be  agitating  .

The council will most likely employ people on Saturdays to visit sports grounds and arrest anyone smoking.
But the ratepayers support this move according to the Mayor.
Who came up with this idea? Sue Bradford? Nandor Pizazz?

The public have had enough of this interfering in peoples lives.A nanny state is bad enough  nanny councils too?????

Napier councillors should follow this one up.

In a TV news item from America a collection of used train carriages is being dumped in the sea to create a reef.

It may be a little late now but Fay Richwhite may have been able to supply these from old NZ Rail rolling stock,  to the council for a reef at Westshore.

Its surprising with the price of steel that these carriages weren’t scrapped and recycled.

Oh well they will already carrying a load of passengers again.

The Hastings District Council has extended the time for submissions on the Regional Sports Park by a week to Friday 30 th May.

It’s an unusual move as one may have felt they would prefer  less submisions on this hot one. Or maybe they are  sorting out some submissions in support thinking it will boost their chances of pulling off this major mistake.

There are a number of people out there with major concerns about this one and  Meerkat believes the council is going to get more than it thinks to reflect on in the next couple of months.

 

It’s been a sad week for Napier residents.
The decision to disallow the addition of more dolphins for marineland is a sad blow for common sense.

The dolphins have been a major attraction in Napier for many years and the PC brigade have won another  false victory.

Meerkat can’t help but visualise the mass slaughter of dolphins in Japan  and wonder why  a few taken and looked after so well for many years ,  reaping benefits  for so many people  ,  is not  looked upon as  a small  ,very small  impact on the world dolphin population.

There was so much  joy  when dolphins  were  caught for marineland  and Napier children who grew up catching fish  for Marineland will be   feeling  disappointed that todays children can’t follow suit.

Thirteen thousand people were  ignored .What a shame. 

Once again we have seen some pretty big seas rolling in to the Bay and the camp at Te Awanga has taken a battering where the concrete on the sea front runs out.
The Regional Council has reiterated their position about the camp being in the hazard zone and sooner or later the sea will swallow them up.
Is this the best solution or should they be allowed to protect their property? A consent is required for any work but that will cost a fortune.
If the work is done wothout a consent the council will take them on with another abatement notice. There has to be some solution to this.If the owners are willing to try and stem the tide until a solution is found why can this not be allowed?As long as the risk is taken by them then the ratepayers will not be burdened.
It’s a tough one that needs some deep thinking.

So many stories floating around about who is to blame for the price of petrol. Who do you believe?

Apart from this question what is really annoying and it is beginning to hurt big time ,is the way the government collects off petrol.
When the price was much lower it was not  so noticeable  as I guess everyone rolled over .Who would bother to try and  stop  this tax take, after all it was going back into the roads?
Well when it started to sink in that the goverment was raking off a huge take and depositing it in the consolidated fund ,it didn’t go down so well.
The worst aspect of this tax is that it is collected on a percentage basis.
It is now time to tell this and the next government that if you want 30c a litre tax then take that and no more.

Everytime the price goes up under the current setup the government grabs more  unnecessarily.

The whole country should be up in arms over this one.

 

The desire of HDC to get their way over any issue ,to beat off opponents,win at all costs, knows no bounds.

After going to the privy council and being given a strong message,then going through a hearing for designation,the Hastings DC now requests more time toconsult with landowners in the path of the proposed route.

Since this route was mooted there have been many changes to transport flows in HB ,the expressway extension has been opened ,the Meeanee flyover has been built and there have been industry changes that impact on truck movements to the port.

Hastings really needs to sit down and start again.

The Northern arterial is not a smart idea and it would be better to stread traffic movements between Hastings and Napier instaed of forcing all traffic onto the expressway.

To say that they want to consult and not negotiate  is seemingly arrogant .The time for consultationis over.

The case against the Northern arterial cutting through 10 blocks of highly fertile ,productive orchards and being responsible for consigning  a stand  of marvellous  majestic trees to the chainsaw  let alone other issues,surely means the answer from the commissioners should be ‘NO’.

An interesting situation this week.

We have the Mayor of Hastings District Council announcing he is standing for President of Local Government NZ .This comes with a nice remuneration package of around $82,000 pa on top of the Mayoral wage.

At the same time we hear the Mayors friend and fellow Mayor of Wanganui ,announce that the Wanagnui DC is not going to be a member of LGNZ and can put the annual subscription of $35,000 to better use for its ratepayers.

Is LGNZ of any use at all? What does it really do except run an annual conference which is a talkfest? Is their any value in HDC being a member?
The only thing is it now puts paid to the rumour that the Hastings Mayor is to be on the National Party list for this years election.
Or does it?

Some of the speakers at the public meeting on the proposed sports park had done alot of work on issues arising out of this proposal.
Dianne Charteris in particular pinpointed a range of major issues that must have reflected the thoughts of  many others present at the meeting.
The council considered they had consulted with the public previously but then stated that they had consulted with sports groups.So the idea  for this council is you only consult with those in favour of something.
They think the public are stupid.

A disappointing turnout of around 70 people sat quietly in the Hastings Opera House and listened to the big sell on Percival Rd.
It is clear now this project is full of ifs and buts and the figures frankly don’t stack up.

The Mayor in his address again peddled this illusion that the referendum on Nelson Park was also a referendum on Percival Rd. IT WAS NOT. No ratepayer had any idea what was in stall for this pie in the sky project and the vote was specifically on Nelson Park,yes or no. Percival Rd was separate issue.

The HDC needs to be hauled over the coals for continuing to repeat this rubbish.(by whom though?).

The Mayor proceeded to tell ratepayers that the project was going to get kids of their bums and down to the park so they must be going to introduce a bylaw that forces all teenagers to drop their texting and computers and put on their  track gear  and head to Percival RD.
The emphasis on social health benefits was over the top.If anything this is more the realm of Central Government.Not rate payers.
The velodrome at $11 million is very nice for a few cyclists  but it is a huge cost  to benefit  one sport.This  type  of  facility  could be located  next  to the Hockey  and soccer in Napier at Park Island.  Actually the whole damn thing should be  .
The Mayor has discovered gymnastics after all these years but they left out volleyball. The worst admission by the Mayor was that in the future he sees the whole block around Percival Rd in houses. The challenge for Hastings is for planning that preserves not absorbs our best resources.
Mr Kelt also addressed the meeting but it was all a big sell on the Park. It just didn’t seem to fit having a business type partnership in this situation.Councils are not here to build monuments.
The only people that seem happy with this project are the sports groups who benefit from millions of ratepayers money and a continuing struggle to pay rates.