Comments on: Regional Council breaks piggy bank

By: Dave Head

Dave Head — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:53:47 +0000

Hello what has this spending got to do with the ‘environment’????
SWA I would suggest.

By: Pat Magill

Pat Magill — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:45:33 +0000

Collin Blackman deserves a “big tick” for suggesting HBRC donations could have been directed at “Screening our Waste ” towards a cleaner Hawkes Bay.
Hawkes Bay Regional Councillor Liz Remmerswall also deserves a “big tick’ in her concern that the proposed Sports Park will not cater for all, especailly the many bored unemployed youth,who would respond to activities in the own parks and school grounds in close proximinty to their homes.
Anyway we have the failed expensive prisons to fall back on, and our prisons are never short of a buck.

By: Paddy Maloney

Paddy Maloney — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:29:21 +0000

Tom, when was a sports grounds, upgrading a town hall , and art gallery infrastructure?
This is public relations spin describing this expenditure as infrastructure.
These projects are discretionary community/social/ recreaction/cultural projects, and this difference needs to be understood.
Infrastructure spending is more properly refers to projects that provide economic added value (water, transport, sewerage, better broadband).
The Regional Council must have undertaken some good quality economic cost benefit analysis of other potential projects compared to the alternatives that they would spend the public’s money on. Have you got this analysis? And what other alternatives were considered?
Given the Regional Council’s desire to use “its lazy balance sheet” better, we should have more knowledge of the other projects that they could have invested in, and a good understanding of the expected returns from our investments.

Given the Council is to use public funds (currently earning interest, or increased rate demands) and borrow further money, the rate of return needs to be greater than the cost of funds, and greater than the return from other potential uses of this money.
Can you shed any more light on this aspect of their decision?
Paddy Maloney.

By: Collin Blackman

Collin Blackman — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:13:22 +0000

Everyone is talking “Green” and here they are spending up large on a Sports Park and ignoring the ‘Screened Waste’ that goes into the Ocean from Hawkes Bay. Now thats looking after our image – Yeah Right. I know where i would rather my HRC $$ go – waste treatment.

By: Dexter McGhie

Dexter McGhie — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:51:52 +0000

When will the Regional Council reach its pinacle of waste.

The sports park/velodrome should be scrapped; we/I cannot afford to support this crazy misuse of public funds…………;are any of you in this
organisation actually interested in democracy and listening to the people who pay your stipends!?