From the Mayor

Whenever a Council takes on a project that requires considerable expenditure there are always supporters and opponents to the plan. Even amongst the supporters, there will be those who would like changes to the design, the timing or the location, whatever the project might be.

Councils are required to hear all these opinions and decide which have merit and which don’t. It is a mine field trying to keep everyone happy and those whose ideas are rejected may feel that they haven’t been listened to.

Exactly this happened when South Wairarapa District Council embarked on combining the Greytown library and town hall. Nevertheless, the project went ahead and has been an outstanding success. It revitalised an old decrepit building and provided much needed facilities for the town.

We are now facing the same circumstances with the Martinborough Town Centre proposal. Some opponents are saying that for years Council has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Greytown and Martinborough and nothing on Featherston.

Aside from the Greytown Town Centre, I challenge those people to show me where our spending has not been fair and equitable over the three towns. The money for town centre street upgrades is the same for all three, service levels for our contractors do not differ between towns and we work hard to provide the same facilities across the board.

Through the Annual Plan hearings submitters will be presenting their arguments for and against. Council does listen to submitters and consider their opinions. Whatever the outcome of the process however, some people are going to be disappointed that they didn’t get what they wanted this time around.