Councils continue to up their spending
The majority of the region is operating in an austerity mode, but the councils do not appear to have got the memo. All the Long-Term Plans, plan to extend spending.
The WDC plan tells us we have no say except for three items which give us an idea of their thinking.
The first is to spend $1 million per year to set up their property development company, presumably to spend millions more.
Second is another million dollars for council to join a tourism organisation, and the third is to spend $200,000 per year to keep freedom campers comfortable.
Why not just stop freedom camping?
The regional council plan includes increases in spending on every item except their “Trojan Horse” with plans to cut funding to Rescue Services.
It has worked as hundreds of submissions have been sent in focusing only on this one item, ignoring the other increases including the building of a $7.5 million plus building.
The rescue services should never have been removed and savings found elsewhere.
The people focusing just on this one item gives the council a mandate to continue with business as usual and the ratepayers to wear formidable increases to their rates. People can change this. Please have your say now.
Paul Voss
Waipu
Concern growing
Thanks for publishing the article by Susan Botting regarding the proposed Waste to Energy plant for the Kaipara District.
This is an important issue for us in Kaipara, but also for the whole of Te Taitokerau as both Whangārei and Far North district councils have been implicated in the scheme by KDC mayor Jepson.
As the article points out, there is growing concern and opposition to Jepson’s plans throughout the district.
I agree with Stephanie Barnes, and many others adding their voices, that there is no place for this so called waste to energy plant in Kaipara or anywhere else in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The rationale for these plants is completely at odds with our national and regional goals for waste minimisation as they require an ongoing supply of “feedstock” — AKA our “rubbish” for decades to come, totally contrary to all attempts to reduce waste from all areas of our society.
If the mayor had any actual desire to address waste flow issues he could do no more than look at he efforts of Sustainable Kaipara, in his own backyard of Mangawhai, to see how local action can have meaningful impacts on waste streams.
Jepson may not be worried about emissions of pollutants and dangerous contaminants such as dioxins and toxic ash produced by these plants but the rest of us are.
He has long been an apologist and promoter of these schemes and yet he didn’t see fit to include them in his mayoral campaigns so he really has no mandate from the electorate to push yet another rubbish one on us.
His comment that the investigation costs were “bugger all, just some council staff time” begs the question how good is this so called investigation? If you get what you pay for, does he value the staff so lowly or expect a “once over lightly” investigation to keep costs down?
David Mitchell
Dargaville
Stats don’t lie
In reply to Geoff Parker (and I thank him for the stats) regarding loss of Māori land, history reveals that before the 19th Century, Māori had collective tribal ownership of all land in NZ and most did not understand the Colonial system of individual land ownership titles, those non-Māori who began bartering goods and muskets in return for more and more acres.
Even if land was gifted, Public Works Act, Treaty breaches, confiscations as punishments during New Zealand wars, for public spaces etc, if the land is no longer fit for the purposes it was ‘given’ for or surplus to requirement then it should be returned and not sold back to iwi at today’s unobtainable market price.
Successive governments and landowners have made profits on that land and Waitangi Tribunal settlements in no way redresses land loss that Māori which lost from the colonial era.
It is also very important that Māori retain positions on local councils so that historical tapu areas and features are recorded when building consents are issued. Regarding land, one only has to look at the stats for the number of Māori who do not own their own home or land and who live in poverty today. A long way from 100 per cent land ownership in a couple of centuries.
Marie Kaire
Ngararatuna