A good mate of mine phoned the other night and during the conversation he asked me why I was so anti the Regional Sports Park.
To say I was surprised is an understatement.
I am not anti the sports park and I thought I had made that abundantly clear – but – there appears to be doubt – so I will have another go at explaining my position this morning.
If the Hastings District Council want, and feel they can afford, to build a large sports park, good on them. Such a facility will attend to the deficit in sports grounds in Hastings and of course will add to the region’s total facilities. Just as the sports grounds in Napier, like Park Island and Onekawa, funded by Napier Ratepayers, add to the pool.
My argument is, and always has been, that the proposed sports park is a Hastings venture and that Napier Ratepayers, who have already provided adequate facilities in their own city, should not be called on to fund the project.
Again I stress – I am not against the proposed sports park. I simply do not believe Napier Ratepayers have any responsibility to fund it.
Much is being made of the fact that it is a regional facility. Surely if the sports park was truly a regional facility, Napier would have been consulted on what sports they thought it should cater for.
At no time was Napier consulted about the make-up of the sports park – we were consulted only when funding was asked for.
And if the regional card is going to be played lets have a look at the most regional of all sporting facilities in Hawke’s Bay – the home of National and International Rugby and Cricket – McLean Park.
McLean Park is undergoing a 10 million dollar refurbishment to prepare for future major events including the Rugby World Cup.
Hastings made it very clear that we shouldn’t even ask for funding assistance, it wouldn’t be forthcoming.
So Napier has got on with the job and is providing this international standard facility for the region and I hope Hastings is able to get on with the job and provide their international standard facility for the region.
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