There are two types of markets in our current arrangements in marketing Hawke’s Bay.  One based on tourism and one based on economic development.

The three players you refer to have different roles. Councils market their own cities and districts, tourism offerings, events and economic opportunities. Venture Hawke’s Bay markets the same things on a regional basis, principally to the Wellington/Auckland and overseas markets. The industry, in collaboration with both Councils and VHB, provides the opportunities, product and collateral, and to my mind have a role in helping to market the area through their own marketing activities and through support and participation in regional and district marketing efforts.

Hawke’s Bay Wine Country is our regional tourism brand. Does this work? Not as well as it should.

We have not yet achieved a fully united front in our efforts. Each of the players is still concerned to some degree about patch protection. This is despite us being one of the most favoured destinations and regions in the country. Our lifestyle, weather and schools are key drivers in people decisions to visit or live in our region.

Are we competing well with other regions? No.

While Queenstown and Rotorua are probably in a different category, we should be able to compete with other regions. Wellington, Taranaki and Canterbury all have effective and complete regional approaches. Wellington has a regional strategy lead by a Governance Group of the Mayors and Independent Directors. It is Chaired by Sir John Anderson. All the marketing and future growth plans for the Wellington Region are decided by this group. Taranaki has made an assessment of where it needs to be and has gone for it.  Just look at the concerts they now attract.

My criticism of what is happening here is not that people are not trying, it is just the thinking is too small. To some degree all the players are competing with each other.  Some industry members prefer to criticise the efforts of others rather than get stuck in suggesting ideas. We actually need to be competing with other regions and the rest of the world.  We have developed a very good regional tourism brand and have some of the best natural tourism conditions in the country. Yet we have struggled to keep up with the national average with tourism numbers.

Hawke’s Bay needs to be marketed, marketed and marketed. Hastings and Napier both have their brands and identities. Both should be protected and enhanced. Our ratepayers may be worried about the money involved in marketing the region. But we have little choice, our competitors are in our face. It will come as no surprise that one of my reasons for promoting amalgamation is to try and get a completely united and effective regional strategy where everybody thinks and works for the future of our region. I just can’t see that happening under the current arrangements, despite best efforts.

In specifically marketing Hastings, Hastings District Council has created a new visitor, events and marketing strategy, which dovetails into the business investment strategy, both of which have been adopted by Council. We are in the middle of significant changes to the i-Site which focus on building better relationships with the industry and other stakeholders and providing a much better level of service. We are recruiting specialised staff to ramp up our marketing and events efforts. And in the economic development area, we are ushering in key account management services and a campaign to attract more business investment. Alongside this, more land is being freed up for investment and employment uses.

However, a lot more than just a brand is required, we have to deliver on the promises we make when we advertise ourselves. This involves working with accommodation providers, event organisers and visitor attractions to present an all-round quality visitor experience that makes people want to come back, and want to recommend Hastings to their friends and family.

BayBuzz is a forum for debating local issues and although perspectives can differ (sometimes greatly from my own) democracy is built on public opinion.

2010 is the year of democracy and there will be a lot of attention on the local elections in the run up to October (and the elbowing for limelight, jousting over issues and the public colliding of personalities that inevitably go with it!).

In the interim however, Hastings District Council will address the day-to-day issues and get the work done. The challenges of recession are not entirely behind us and

it’s crucial Council decisions are prudent, yet progressive, to ensure our community prospers.

I will lead the Council into 2010 by focussing on the long-term goals for Hastings, as well as addressing the more immediate and contentious issues we face.

Council has undertaken a 5% efficiency target over three years and we are confident we are tracking towards that. We are maintaining very similar levels of service through innovative solutions and conservative spending.

Council took a giant leap towards improving customer service for Hastings people with the recent (very favourable) purchase of Heretaunga House. We can now begin the Customer Service Project in earnest, providing ratepayers with a one-stop-shop and a better level of service. I expect significant changes by the end of the year.

There is rapid progress on the Regional Sports Park and I am excited about the swelling community support for the project. The proposed velodrome will make the park even more of a destination, but it will take a coordinated effort from Hawke’s Bay people to win the bid to have it here. Hawke’s Bay has all the attributes to be the Cycling Capital of New Zealand, so I encourage all residents to support some of the exciting initiatives the Regional Sports Park trust will be launching soon to secure the velodrome.

Flaxmere has had its fair share of criticism recently, but efforts by Council and local leaders is heartening, with the recent success of Te Aranga Marae and the U-Turn Trust. The upgrade of Flaxmere is also on track and I look forward to seeing some positive changes in Flaxmere’s CBD.

Hastings District Council, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and community group Walking on Water have been working closely to resolve issues around coastal erosion at Haumoana, Te Awanga and Clifton.

While the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement and the HB Regional Council Plans are significant consenting hurdles, I am determined to help the community find an agreed position. The coast continues to erode and a decision needs to be made as to whether hard protection can work, gain consent and be funded. The other option of managed retreat equally has some significant issues.

The Heretaunga Plains Urban Development Strategy will be completed around the middle of the year. This combined effort, with Napier City and the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, is an exciting step toward a long-term regional plan.

I am firm in my belief that the region’s Councils should amalgamate and will develop my proposal. This is something that should be formally considered by HB people in 2011. I have been buoyed by the support I’ve received to have a reasoned and proper look at the Council structure for the region.

Not everybody will agree with my stance, but I have a strong view that we can do far better as a region if we have one common direction and set of decision-makers. Whatever is done has to be fair and I am very confident a strong and appealing solution can be found.

BayBuzz columnists have not always been complimentary of my stance on a number of issues. Obviously I disagree with a number of those points but I do accept the democratic right to challenge the status quo.

Those who think-outside-the-square or who want to see Hawke’s Bay prosper are the very people who should be sitting around the table after October.

I encourage people to put their names forward for election and, as someone who knows the ropes, I am happy to confidentially talk to anyone about the process.

Have a great year and I look forward to debating the issues with you.

I think we have come a long way since our bitter parochial politics of the 1990’s. Barbara Arnott and I have a wonderful working relationship and we have made a genuine attempt to bring the two cities together. I believe we have had significant success and it has been easy.

So what I have proposed is not about merging Napier and Hastings with the rest of the region. It is about finding the most effective and efficient structure to deliver the required services to you, the ratepayers.

Yes there will be some efficiencies and cost savings, but worldwide evidence suggests that these are relatively modest. The real benefits come from collectively managing our physical resources, financial resources and people.

The model I have suggested deliberately allows for significant decision making at the local level, in Hastings and Napier, over things that are important to the cities. Road, water and storm water upgrades, urban design rules, community development are all things that residents are vitally interested in. I am suggesting that these be governed by the people in these communities.

More regional activities like Land Use Planning, Civil defence, Airport, Port, Libraries, Building Control, Environmental management and protection can more effectively be handled at a regional level.

I have also given a timeframe which allows for proper and reasoned debate. Any changes would have to be voted on in a binding referendum in late 2011 or early 2012 and would not be effective until 2013.

On Monday I was heartened to get the endorsement of all the current Mayors and Chair, that this topic should be worked on in 2011 and put to the people.

While certain commentators have questioned my motives for taking the lead on the issue of amalgamation, this is something I believe in. I pushed for it in 1999, and I’m going to push for it again.  I think the time is right for the region to come together.

If the people want change they will vote for it. If they don’t they won’t. It’s as simple as that.

I see the managing of this resource as the most significant challenge facing the Hastings District Council, Napier City Council and the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. It’s more complex than managing our water resources, because unlike water, people own the land they live and work on. They have title to it and they use it how they see fit.

With ownership comes a right of say, and a complicated set of issues around its value.

You don’t have to think back too far to remember various attempts to manage the conflicting land use issues on the plains. The Hawke’s Bay County Council fought to protect our soil resource at all costs. To subdivide, you had to prove you could make a living of the subdivided land. This involved consultants in preparation of plans to prove subdivision was economically viable. Some succeeded, some failed. Most of the planned uses only lasted for a year or two and the land was then essentially a lifestyle block.

The Hastings City Council developed and expanded Flaxmere (with support of the Hawke’s Bay County Council) because it made sense for a dormitory suburb to be located on poor soils. In fact, the soils to the west of Flaxmere were so poor they barely supported grass growth. With the advent of viticulture, this same land can produce some of the best red wine in the world, branded as Gimblett Gravels. Quite simply, the western part of Flaxmere was poorly planned on soils which, in retrospect, can extract significant value for our region.

The Hastings District combined the former plans of Hastings City Council, Havelock North Borough Council and Hawke’s Bay County Council and put all the productive flat land together in a planning area referred to as the Plains Zone. This includes all the Heretaunga Plains as well as parts of the Dartmoor Valley, Puketapu, Te Hauke and coastal areas, such as the areas surrounding Haumoana and Te Awanga. Napier City on the other hand controls the fertile land around Meeanee and Awatoto.

The Heretaunga Growth Strategy, currently being developed by Hastings, Napier and HB Regional Councils, is the first regional attempt to work out how we manage all the issues in a sustainable and integrated way. We have two cities twenty minutes apart surrounded by some of the best land in the world. How we manage this land is vitally important to our future.

The region also needs to actively grow our population. It is no secret our population is ageing and this needs to be offset by a positive and reasoned strategy to hold onto our existing residents and attract new migrants. It’s vital we allow for growth – developing housing, roads, water and infrastructure for business.

Napier is a seaside city that can accommodate growth via high density apartment living on attractive locations overlooking the sea and via new less fertile land lifted in the 1931 earthquake.

Hastings, on the other hand, is essentially a beautiful market town built on an old swamp with a railway line establishing its position. It provides the business hub for the region and services thriving agricultural and horticultural sectors. There is little demand for high density residential housing, with the exception of Havelock North. Surrounding these two cities are proud communities such as Clive, Haumoana, Te Awanga, and Bayview.

What are the challenges?

1.  Community perceptions have changed.  There is now a significant community interest in landscape values. The less productive hills around the plains are valued for their landscapes and it’s now more difficult to build there. So, if we want to protect the fertile land on the plains and the landscape values of the hills, the options for development are limited.

2.  The land ownership is fragmented, with hundreds of small titles too small for traditional horticultural use. They might be used for horticulture currently, but can easily be converted into lifestyle blocks.

3. Primary production is full of economic uncertainty. Boom-or-bust patterns are common. In reality most producers rely on a combination of equity growth in their land to offset modest cash surpluses from growing produce. Adverse climatic and economic events often result in requests from growers to subdivide off low-priority assets, like houses, in an effort to retain the income generating capacity of their core business.

4. Industry requirements keep changing. The apple industry required packhouses on orchards less than fifteen years ago. Now most packing facilities have been centralised.  Some of this centralisation has occurred on industrial land, while some has occurred on the good quality plains-zoned land. The wine industry required vertical integration from growing to sales. This allows for wineries and restaurants to be built where the grapes are grown.

5.  Any residential, commercial or industrial zonings must make sense from an infrastructure perspective.  Generally, we have plenty of clean water. We have geographic challenges in stormwater disposal in Napier, and into the catchments of the Karamu Stream. Wastewater reticulation is very expensive and there are significant economies of scale in clustering housing. It is possible to engineer anything from single home infrastructure packages to multimillion-dollar schemes, but the economic costs of these must make sense.

6. Climate Change requires a new approach to planning around coastlines and waterways.

A lot of the debate around the Sports Park, the Havelock North retirement village, the Bunnings development in Hastings and the various golf course developments straddle all of these issues. In the many discussions I have had on these issues, I ask the same question:  “What is your solution?”

Do we draw a line in the sand? Ban certain activities in certain areas? Shift residential development to lower-value land kilometres away from existing infrastructure? Only allow growth on poor quality soils? Shift all residential growth to Havelock North, Clive or Bayview?

The response is the same.  Few people have an answer.

We already have a successful Regional Transport Plan. The Heretaunga Plains Urban Growth Strategy is our first regional attempt to develop a plan to address land use issues regionally. My personal aim is to collectively work towards a single District Plan that is well thought out, sustainable and agreed.

Getting there will involve plenty of interaction and meaningful consultation with key players and the community.  There has never been a better opportunity to sort these issues – our only constraint is what we currently know. We have a chance to significantly influence the shape of the Heretaunga Plains for the next 50 years.

It is our future and your chance.

In this article I want to focus on what this might mean for Hastings and Hawke’s Bay in my capacity as Mayor. I will also cover the issues that will arise for Local Government nationally in my role as President of Local Government New Zealand.

The strong support for National in the region and dramatically increased majorities for MP’s Craig Foss and Chris Tremain are partially due to the national swing, but not completely. These two hard working MP’s have championed the causes of Hawke’s Bay in a unified and effective way. In my view, the public have relished the team approach they have offered.

All of this said, if you read any amount of world and New Zealand economic data, you will realise we are in for a very challenging time. Unemployment in the US is the highest for fourteen years and is tipped to reach 7.1% in the UK. In Hawke’s Bay unemployment rose dramatically last month and building consents nationally were the lowest since the late 1980′s.

It is clear that the new Government are not underestimating the challenges. Nor should we. The residential property market is very slow, many older people have lost life savings in finance companies and confidence is falling. The National-led government will focus on private enterprise and increasing economic activity. This is what they stand for.

So what does it mean for the people of Hawke’s Bay. National has promised to intervene in two key issues.

• Firstly, the development of the airport is seen by them as a part of our critical infrastructure. They have offered complete support to the corporatisation process and longer term to possible changes in its ownership. Like me, they see it as a major economic driver for the region.
• Government will reappoint some of the former sacked District Health Board members to work alongside the current Commissioner in the running of the region’s health services.

More broadly, however, I expect some changes around local government. National will adopt a “less is more” approach. Less intervention and a streamlining of bureaucracy.

• In the first 100 days they have promised to propose significant changes to the Resource Management Act. It is likely they will impose strict timelines on processing of consent applications. They will attempt to remove layers of red tape from these processes.
• They are likely to use “call-in” provisions to avoid time delays in significant national RMA decisions. This effectively allows the Minister responsible to send such applications directly to the Environment Court without the usual Council hearing processes.
• There will be a major review of water management. Water is likely to have a value placed on it to allow trading in a market-type structure. Certain water bodies may have allocated priority uses in the national interest. Some rivers may have hydro priority and some recreational priority.
• A major infrastructure review including roading, water, wastewater and broadband. Councils are the most significant investors in these areas. A Minister of infrastructure will be appointed.
• A capping of civil servant numbers.
• A more flexible approach to climate change and Kyoto. It is likely the ETS will be modified to balance the macro economic needs of the country.

Of these the most significant is the development of a Minister of infrastructure. For too long we have stumbled along without any clear national framework. Councils are expected to complete and have audited, long term asset management plans for infrastructure. We do this, yet our Central Government spend does not operate under the same rules.

A significant part of my national role in the next few months will revolve around this area. While most people worry about the economy, health and education, the daily functioning of our society revolves around a first class level of infrastructure.

In summary, there will be some significant changes. I will be looking from a Council perspective towards some long term infrastructure planning; an end to the passing of legislation which adds an extra financial burden to ratepayers; a reduction in the amount of government led bureaucracy. I will also be watching to make sure our environment is enhanced and protected.

John Key would also do well to foster the Maori Party and all the gains that have been made around the Treaty.

We may be heading into difficult economic times, but I do like what I hear from John Key so far. In his victory speech he said: “We all need to work together in the common good of the nation.” I couldn’t agree more. We have led the way in this region and long may it continue.

Last Thursday the Council decided its position on the Private Plan Change for Ocean Beach. I and by far the majority of Councillors oppose what is being proposed by the landowners. I do not believe the Private Plan Change offers the necessary protection to the northern end of the beach, and I think 1000 houses will destroy the very essence of a much loved piece of our coast line.

The petition mounted by BayBuzz (Editor: among many others) did reinforce the general public sentiment. I congratulate all those involved in getting the signatures together. You believe in what you are promoting and are prepared to do the work to show us.

I want to briefly discuss the message that was delivered on Thursday that simply said “ Just say no.” While this may be appealing, I don’t believe it will stand the scrutiny of the RMA process based on the evidence. I have poured over thousands of pages of evidence during the past two years. I liken the “saying no” argument to a discussion we will probably all have had with children. Simply saying no when they are young may work, but as they get older and become more aware of subject they then question the word no, and it needs to be justified.

So is the case here. I am aware that all sorts of experts will be involved in the Commissioner Hearings. Those that will argue for the landowners, those that will argue the Councils’ positions and those brought in to help other submitters. I have a duty to try and assess all the information I have been given. This includes that from the applicants, the Council and opposition groups such as Future Ocean Beach. I have done exactly that to get to my view.

My position is formed on the following principles.

1. The landowners already have existing rights for 26 lots which could arguably be taken to 52. These extend the complete length of the beach.

2. The northern end of the beach requires permanent protection from development.

3. The public requires a large reserve, which should include a camping ground.

4. The areas that development could occur need to be determined. The scale and timing of this needs to be resolved.

For these reasons I am not persuaded that simply saying no is a valid option. This is a highly complicated issue but I am determined to get it resolved. I don’t have a final view on what the answer will be. That is what the process will determine. What I will say though is I am not interested in delay tactics by any party. Much energy and effort has already gone into this by all sides and the sooner it is resolved the better.

Lawrence Yule
Mayor