If Napier Council had stuck to its knitting-core business, after all what we irate- payers pay our rates for? And kept its nose out of the private business sector. It would have all the money to put into the much needed “essential services” Diane and Tom mention, absolutely essential ground services etc, without having to raise endless costly loans. Conditions in Jervoistown, Bayview and HB coastal areas are akin or, at times, exactly the same as SQUALID out-bush Third World countries!

Seriously, as any rates increases are largely unsustainable for the majority of people on fixed to diminishing incomes, Councils should NEVER be in the business in of putting huge amounts of ratepayers’ money into RISKY business ventures. For that, I sincerely hope the NEW Minister of Local Government will introduce an ACT of Parliament to hold mayors and councillors “personally financially accountable” (no different to the Code for Company Directors), not just simply at the ballot box.

In the real world, foisting a legacy of “public debt” on Napier’s and Hastings’ future generations is nothing short of criminal.

Would the Mayor and Councillors of our Twin Cities risk doing it with their very own money? Yea right !