Firstly, my concerns are growing about the rising methamphetamine (P) distribution and usage in our community.

I’m sure everyone is getting as much feedback as I am in the community.

Councillors and I are concerned about this issue because of the good things happening in Wairoa and the consequences of P usage are devastating to our community.

I raised this issue at the Community Partnership meeting yesterday, and along with the police and our other community leaders we need to get the message out there that the P cycle needs to be cut off.

Everyone has a responsibility in this conversation, because as we all know there is not a prosperous future for anyone on P except for the sellers and pushers whom make profits not seen in Wairoa before.

We want to work hard together with everyone to try and make Wairoa a better place, but like I said we need everyone’s help on this.

Secondly, the 2018-28 Long Term Plan has provided an opportunity for our community, individuals, iwi, hapū, local organisations and businesses to have their say on the Council’s direction, priorities, work programme and budgets for the next 10 years.

Council had undertaken an LTP pre-engagement process in October last year where we took the community caravan around the district.

Residents were encouraged to share their ideas about how Council can make Wairoa an even better place to live, work and play.

If you didn’t get an opportunity to see us, you can attend our public consultation meetings coming up in the next few weeks.

Council has identified a number of key projects that this community sees as priorities, based on the feedback from our ratepayers and commitments in our previous long-term and annual plans.

Maintaining our levels of services and infrastructure is core business for us.

Infrastructure provides a foundation for building strong and resilient communities and Council will be seeking to invest in infrastructure over the life of this plan.

These projects will keep our district working and are necessary to continue or improve levels of service and regulatory compliance.

Council and I are encouraging you our ratepayers to help us in setting these priorities and programmes, to help build a brighter tomorrow and invest in the future.

We will keep you updated as to when the consultation period starts. This will be in the coming weeks.

To submit your feedback on this LTP, you can use Wairoa District Council’s online submission portal on www.wairoadc.govt.nz, once Council adopts this LTP.

Council staff will also be distributing LTP consultation document to a number of locations around the Wairoa district, including Council’s office.

There will also be a number of community consultation meetings around the district. We will keep you updated on these locations.

On a final note, Council has received a number of complaints on social media around fly dumping in public areas. 

Unfortunately, even though Council doesn’t dump rubbish, we have to clean it up.

I shake my head in disbelief that people do this in our beautiful community, especially when we have some of the lowest dump fees in the country.

We respond to fly dumping incidents and are tasked with cleaning it up but it this a community issue, not a Council one.

31 October 2018

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