The wrong priority

Three million dollars was recently approved by council for land purchase of a new sports facility for Kerikeri. At the same time, our four local councillors put a plan to fix Kerikeri’s traffic congestion on hold for another four years.

A new sports facility in a small town that already boasts The Domain, Kerikeri Sports Complex and Bay Sport, not to mention the other sporting facilities in the BOI, is simply not affordable, or even needed, when our infrastructure is already woefully inadequate.

The Northland Sports Facility Plan reveals the average use of all sporting facilities in Northland over summer peak hours is 34 per cent, and 51 per cent in winter.

It rightly highlights the strain on capital funding budgets when sporting preferences are constantly changing, and stresses the need for sporting facilities to adapt.

So why would our council limit the capacity of a new sports complex to adapt by looking at land purchase options in areas where drainage is an identified issue?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful — even responsible — if our four local councillors voted as one to get our roading/ wastewater/stormwater infrastructure up to scratch before allowing themselves to be distracted by a few developers who want to get rid of their swampy patches of dirt at ridiculously inflated prices? JILL SMITH

Kerikeri