"D for
Decision" Time for HuttHutt City Council has been promoting debate on Economic Development as part of its consultation over the draft annual plan. It is extremely important for the people of the city to understand what the Council is proposing to do and the reason why Council is inviting them to take part in the 'Visioning Exercise'. The purpose of the visioning exercise is to decide what its citisens want our city to look like in five to ten years time. If we do not resolve now as to what that should be, then, of course, it won't happen.
It is "D for 'Decision time." What should the Naenae Shopping Centre, now fifty years old, look like? What should Hutt Park, a derelict raceway, look like? What should our library services look like ten years from now? Is it time for the Dowse Art Museum to be expanded in the light of its current success, or will it be outpaced by its competitors elsewhere in the region?
The city has a number of assets that are ageing and which urgently need replacement or renewal. Nothing of any significance has been done in the Central Library for over fifty years. Very little has been spent on Hutt Park in recent times. So, in addition to Economic Development, there is the question of our ageing infrastructure. In addition, we need to allow for the cumulative increases in inflation that have taken place in the last five years. This Council is probably unique in New Zealand in that it has absorbed inflation over most of that time - we can no longer do so without a loss of services. Finally, there is the $50m cost of our new Waste Water Treatment Plant, making true our boast of being 'clean and green', but inevitably, at a cost.
If we add together all these things listed above, and decide to do all of them, then the average rate increase across the city will be 7.5 percent. Personally, I think that is likely to be unacceptable, but it is necessary to address these things as part of the 'Big Picture', and part of deciding what our shared vision is for our city's future.
One or two critics have characterised this as a 'Think Big' strategy, designed to con us into spending money we can't afford. We are, in fact, doing something that we have not done for fifty years, and that is seeking to engage our community in answering the question 'What sort of city do you want to bequeath to your children?' Unless we do some of the things which are contemplated above, then the plain, uncomfortable truth is that our population will continue to fall and employment will continue to decrease, and our grandchildren will deplore our failure of foresight.
I don't want to see that happen. Nobody does.
God Bless,
John Terris
Mayor