Bill Dalton

The Hastings District Council’s sports park project is the current political hot potato in Hawke’s Bay and as you would expect there are widely differing views.

The athletics track is down and for my dough the grandstand should be built to complete that stage of the project. The funding for that has largely been provided by the sale of Nelson Park.

The next stage of the project is the provision of tennis courts, netball courts and soccer grounds.

Clearly the Hastings District Council would like the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the Napier City Council to help with funding this stage – hence the reason the project is now called the Regional Sports Park. It is my view that Napier has done a great job in providing facilities for these sports and has plenty of available land at Park Island for expansion. Why would we spend Napier Ratepayers money on facilities almost 15km away – facilities that are clearly planned to attend to the deficit in such facilities in Hastings.

It might sound like I am against co-operation between the two cities and that is far from the case. Napier is in the process of a very expensive upgrade of McLean Park and there is no more regional facility in the province than that iconic venue. We are doing our bit for regional facilities.

Much is being made of the impact on communities the sports park will have. We are told that we will see a reduction in obesity – reduction in smoking and a general improvement in the health of the most vulnerable in our society.

Surely if that is the aim then the facilities should be put into the communities not out in the middle of nowhere. Many of the “at risk” groups will not be able to afford to travel to the sports park let alone pay the facility fees.

We are told that there will be plenty of facilities to encourage the oldest amongst us to engage in physical activities. Again wouldn’t those facilities be better in the communities where the elderly live. The mind boggles at the thought of all those zimmer frames and mobility scooters heading across the expressway.

Personally I am yet to be convinced that the Napier City Council should commit our ratepayer’s money to this project. We have not been consulted nor had any input into the make-up of the facility. It is clearly a Hastings District Council project and I wish them every success with it.

We had a suggestion at Council the other day that we mount huge signs all along the coastline to warn people of the dangers of swimming off the Napier beaches. Frankly the suggested signs were huge ugly wordy things that suggested that the beach could be dangerous when rough – there may be freak waves – it might be shallow etc. Surprise Surprise!

This is the third recommendation to install signs along the foreshore that we have received in the one year I have been on council. One outfit suggested we ban smoking in all parks and reserves -that includes the foreshore - and that we should put signs everywhere to advise people of the fact. If you can’t wander down to the beach for a smoke where can you go?

Another do-gooder outfit suggested we erect huge signs advising people that “If a tsunami was coming they should move to higher ground”. What do they think we would do – go and sit in a hole somewhere?

Whatever happened to individual responsibility and parental responsibility? Where is this big brother – this is how you are going to behave – thing going end?

What else should we put signs up for? Don’t leave your sandwiches on the beach, the seagulls might get them. Don’t leave your towel by the water it might get wet. Don’t sit on the hot stones you might burn your bum.

I have to say this whole sign thing is getting out of hand and it is destroying initiative in our society.

Go to Wellington and see ugly signs slapped on the sides of beautiful old buildings telling you to use the handrail as you go down the steps.

If you are that wobbly on your pins that you can’t walk down a flight of steps, of course you would use the handrail – and possibly catch bird flu on the way down and die anyway.

Signs in general really say “don’t think for yourself just read the instructions we have for you.”

And most of them are so ugly. If we put all the signs along the foreshore they want us to, no one would have any idea the sea was at hand – no one would be able to see it.

Its time all these organisations who are trying to force their will on society simply to protect their own butt were pensioned off.

And its time we stopped all this nonsense and got back to thinking for ourselves – to looking after our kids and keeping our environment clear of ugly signs and hoardings.

You don’t have to travel far from Hawkes Bay to realise we live in one of the best spots in the world, but we need to do more to ensure our way of life is preserved.

We are a tourist region and yet we are a little off the beaten track – we need to provide attractions and facilities that encourage tourists to visit the East Coast.

Napier, with its Art Deco quarter is a jewel in Hawkes Bay’s tourism crown. And yet Napier has its’ own problems that we need to address.

We need a beach and one day the Council will have the guts to run with this project.

We have a very real problem with more and more motels being built along our Marine Parade and more and more bars and restaurants being built in Ahuriri. How do we link the two? How do we make sure those that are staying on the Marine Parade enjoy Ahuriri and those that are staying in Ahuriri enjoy the inner city.

My view is we should set up a small train-like vehicle with carriages that would run on the road between the refurbished Marineland and West Quay. If you have ever transferred from International to Domestic at Honolulu airport on the Wiki Wiki you will know what I mean.

The Deco Deliverer could be made up of a tractor unit and the number of carriages would be determined by demand. The carriages would have speakers in them and a recorded commentary would tell the passengers about the Marine Parade, why the Sea Wall was built, the history of the Port, Ahuriri’s history. Done properly it could be a great experience and it would be a point of difference for Napier.

Hawkes Bay needs to look at ventures that are unique. We have wonderful wineries but so do many other areas of New Zealand. We have wonderful orchards and market gardens but so do many other areas of New Zealand. We have a wonderful climate but so do many other areas of New Zealand.

We need points of difference to encourage people to visit Hawkes Bay and perhaps the Deco Deliverer could be one of those things.

Put your thinking caps on and if you’ve got any bright ideas, let me know.

Much is being made of the need to extend the runway at Hawke’s Bay Airport – yet I remain unconvinced that the project is worthwhile.

I do know there is some absolute rubbish being spouted in support of the project.

There is no way that any airline is going to schedule international flights out of Napier – and if they wanted to we would need to spend as much again as the runway cost on security,  – a police station – customs facilities – immigration facilities etc etc.

Look around the country and see what has happened.  Invercargill extended their runway in the hope of attracting international flights into Southland – they have never had one.  Hamilton extended their runway in the belief they could attract three flights a day.  They have never attracted more than 3 a week and some of those have just been cancelled.  Palmerston North, which services a far larger area than the airport at Napier does, has just lost its international provider.

My real worry is that we will lose frequency of flights.  At the moment we can jump on a plane at all sorts of times during the day and be in Wellington or Auckland in about 50 minutes.  From there we can go anywhere in the World.

What is wrong with that?

Efficient airline schedules are based around hubs.  In the States you have places like Denver and Charlotte that are enormous hubs.  Auckland and to a lesser extent, Wellington and Christchurch are New Zealand hubs.

I don’t have a closed mind on the subject of extending Hawkes Bay Airport runway and as a Napier City Councillor I am intrigued that no one has ever asked my opinion or tried to convince me, that the project is worthwhile.

I just make the point that at this stage,  I am yet to be convinced that it makes economic sense to extend the runway when all we can hope for is perhaps the odd charter flight and maybe the odd freight plane.

I just wonder if there is not a better way of spending such a large amount of public money.

I have long held and touted the view, that money is the most corrosive product known to man.

I have seen families disintegrate over money – despite there being plenty to go around.  I have seen businesses collapse over silly arguments about money and I’ve seen organisations disappear completely because of petty arguments about money.

And now Napier’s most iconic event – our Art Deco Weekend is under threat and you guessed it – it is all about money.

The Art Deco Trust has run Art Deco weekend events for years.  They’ve done a good job and the event has grown in stature year by year.

The Hawke’s Bay Vintage Car Club has run a vintage car rally on the same weekend for over 20 years.  The car rally is now recognised as the premier vintage car weekend in New Zealand and attracts well over 300 entries.  The Vintage Car Club committee works for about 9 months of the year putting the rally together and it has become the major fundraising activity for the Club.

The Art Deco Trust’s Art Deco Weekend benefits from the 300 plus vintage cars in the city and the 1,000 odd period costumed participants all here for the vintage car rally. The vintage car rally benefits because the entrants can enjoy the wonderful events put on by the Art Deco Trust. Where, therefore you may well ask, is the problem?

The Art Deco Trust would claim, they are professional event organisers and therefore they should control the whole weekend including the car parade.

The Vintage Car Club would claim that it’s all about the safety of the people watching the parade – they just want assistance with crowd control, road closure, parking etc., for “their” parade.

The truth is that it’s all about money.  The Art Deco Trust has decided that they, being in possession of the address list of previous rally entrants, can control the parade – charge the entry fee and parking fee and pocket the surplus from the weekend.

The Vintage Car Club is saying bugger you – this is our Vintage Car Rally, it is our principal fundraising activity and we will take our events out of the city.

So it’s all about money.  One organisation trying to hijack the activity of another because of money and the other digging in their toes totally – you guessed it – because of money.

It is just a shame that wise cool heads could not get together and come up with a compromise that would suit all.

At the end of the day the event will suffer and no-one will benefit.

Sad really.

I was tempted to talk about Winston Peters again this morning but I decided that if people hadn’t seen through this dreadful individual by now, they never would.

Instead I thought I would tell you about my council duties for the last week.  Dave Pipe and I are the Napier City Council members of the judging team for the Hawkes Bay Regional Environmental Awards.  The team is made up of two councillors from the Regional Council, two from Hastings District and the two of us from Napier.

And what has amazed me is the number of people who are dedicated to improving our environment.  And some of the things they are doing are really very simple yet are having a significant effect on our environment.

There are some things that are notoriously difficult to deal with.  Used tyres is an obvious one – there is no easy way to dispose of tyres.  We can toss them into the landfill but that creates huge problems.  One they fill the landfill up very quickly and two they take years to break down.

One option is to export them but what happens to them then.  I understand that China and other Asian countries import tyres from all over the world and burn them as fuel.

So whilst we are keeping our immediate environment clean, the global environment is being polluted at an alarming rate.  Having old tyres used in such a way is not acceptable and the fact that it is happening out of our sight doesn’t make it any better.

Whilst the judging process takes up an enormous amount of time, it is a really worthwhile process.  It is great to see traditionally dirty industries working so hard to clean up their discharges.  It is satisfying to see what in the past, we would have called waste, being recycled into valuable products.  And it is great to see simple recycling stations appearing in workplaces throughout the district.

The other interesting thing I’ve discovered is that often these environmentally sound practices are not at a cost to the business involved, but in fact result in more efficient work spaces, greater productivity and therefore improved profits.

We’ve got a long way to go but I’m heartened by the progress we have made in recent years towards a cleaner and healthier environment.

There are still some in our community who believe that Marineland should not close its doors to the public when the last dolphin dies.

The fact that two of our councillors voted against the closure simply beggars belief.

What do these people want the Marineland staff to do?  Sell tickets to the public – usher them in to the grandstand – make an announcement that the government prohibits us from capturing, breeding or importing dolphins so there ain’t no dolphins – thank them for coming – and wish them a happy day.

You can’t sell tickets to a show when your headline act is no longer with the show.  You don’t sell tickets to the movies and ask the patrons to look at a blank screen.

There is no option, when the last dolphin dies we do not have a viable entertainment spectacle therefore we must close our doors to the public.  It’s that bloody simple.

What we should be concentrating our energies on is “where do we go from here?”

The marine zoo and hospital has always been a very important part of Marineland and I would like to see that retained.  However that will never be viable on its own – we need a new headline act.  We need a new act that will draw in the punters and please, no-one suggest dolphins – that is a dead duck.

The facilities at Marineland need a huge facelift and that is going to require a great deal of money.  To justify that expenditure we need to have a business model that shows we can increase patronage dramatically.

That means we need a stunning headline act.  Someone out there must have an idea or an image in their mind of an act or a demonstration or a spectacle that would be unique in New Zealand and attract people to Napier the way the dolphins used to.

I am strongly of the opinion that the infrastructure in place at Marineland is too valuable to loose but we can only retain it and build and develop on it, if we can find a new attraction.

So Marineland must close when the last dolphin dies.  Not to do so would be defying logic.

What we need is your ideas to enable us to plan the re-birth.

I still can not believe – or I don’t want to believe the information that John Key brought to our attention this week.

Key claims that bureaucracy is gobbling up huge amounts of the government’s contribution to sport in this country. He claims that Sparc, the government’s sports funding agency, spends a third of its budget on administration. We are told that Sparc employs 86 full-time staff, 47 of them on over $100,000 per year and 14 of those on over $150,000 per year. And despite this army of highly paid and therefore one would hope highly skilled employees – they plan to spend $5.5 million on their website this year.

Frankly I find this outrageous. Surely the government allocates funds to Sparc with the intention of improving the health and well-being of all New Zealanders. Surely the government allocates funds to Sparc to foster sport in such a way that champions are produced. People we can all be proud of.

I am sure Sparc was never set-up to produce a large number of highly paid semi-civil servants who no doubt bolster the numbers on the Wellington cocktail party circuit.

The minister who allowed this to happen should be sacked although - in the interest of costs – we can probably wait until November when that will happen anyway.

But it does raise in my mind the so-called regional sports park.

I say so-called because it is clearly a Hastings District Council initiative – if it was truly regional, others would have been consulted in the region.

For instance – and I accept that this project has been underway since 2004 – I have never been asked if I think a velodrome is a greater asset than a swimming pool, or if gym-sports were more important then badminton.

It is my view that the opportunity to build this park has been lost. We are now into a severe downturn in the economy and corporate backing is going to be extremely hard to obtain.

But if Hastings do manage to complete this ambitious project, they are going to have to be very careful that the planned administrative offices are not full of overpaid bureaucrats eating from the hands of real sports people.

Fuel prices are continuing to rise and we have to ask ourselves – “Why has the price of oil more than doubled and now looks like trebling?”

One thing is for certain – the cost of extracting oil from the ground hasn’t doubled or trebled so somewhere along the way the market is being manipulated.

The Opec nations claim they are not ramping up the prices and yet daily we read stories of the amazing standard of living of the heads of those oil rich states. Personal 747 jets with solid gold bathroom fittings – diamond encrusted Mercedes cars – palaces and houses of indecent proportions – these are certainly not the trappings of those who work on narrow margins.

We know that countries such as the United States released oil from their strategic reserves when prices started to rise – hoping to stem the flow of price increases.

We also know that when they realised that prices were going to continue to rise, they then started to rebuild and expand their reserves therefore exacerbating the problem.

Fuel reserves are essential for the United States Security Plan and as high oil prices tend to undermine international security – they simply need to bolster reserves.

India and China are rapidly increasing their usage of oil as the standard of living improves in these countries. China in particular seems to be oblivious to the situation in the rest of the world and tends to work on the “I’m all right Jack” principle.

Clearly there are speculators somewhere in the middle who are seizing their main chance.

The international oil companies are announcing record profits. As usual they are quick to raise prices on the news of dearer crude and totally ignore the fact that the opposite should happen when crude prices fall.

And all the time sitting on the sidelines is the government. Their tax take is set as a percentage of the pump prices so – the higher the petrol price the greater their take. Michael Cullen must be rubbing his hands with glee. All this extra money pouring into the Government Coffers and he and all his colleagues have cars and petrol supplied by you and I the humble taxpayers.

Now there’s a thought - cars and petrol for City Councillors.

Yeah right.

For me, the best part of any trip is seeing Hawkes Bay unfold as the plane descends towards Hawkes Bay Airport.

The worst part is the two boxes of mail and over three hundred emails that require attention on our return. Mind you the junk mail and the correspondence from nutters is easily identified and able to be deleted or sent for recycling without the hassle of having to open it or read it.

It’s interesting traveling now that I am a City Councillor. I find myself taking great interest in refuse transfer stations and landfills. I find myself quizzing people about what rates (the yanks call it land tax) they pay and what they get for their money. I find myself looking at parks and sporting facilities in a completely new light.

The east coast of the United States is certainly a vastly different place than the west. We loved Washington DC with its memorials and monuments – its huge sturdy buildings that don’t block out the sky and the very real impression we got that we were visiting the centre of power.

Historic Boston was a great place to visit and the state of Maine was simply beautiful. We enjoyed being big kids in Orlando although I have to admit the new space ride in the Epcot Centre made me a little green around the gills.

Miami was just as expected. Warm, racy, brash and a great place to visit. In fact we could easily live in Miami if we won lotto – perhaps a couple of times!

There were two overriding impressions we gained from this trip to the eastern seaboard of the USA.

The first is that Americans are still the most hospitable people in the world. We had people we had never met inviting us into their homes for meals, taking us on outings and showing us around. One lovely fellow took a day off work to show us around Boston and then took us home to have dinner with his wife. Such was the generosity we were shown.

The second impression was that the Americans will never learn. They still serve everything in polystyrene and plastic despite the oil crisis – no thought of using crockery that can be washed and reused. And despite the fact that excess borrowing has precipitated their current economic crisis, they have airline stewards and stewardesses, up and down the aisles trying to convince passengers to sign up for yet another credit card.

Clearly the message about borrowing has yet to get through.

Anyway it is good to be home.