A year of big commerce choices
Local body elections and advocating for more integration between local governments are on the agenda for local Chamber of Commerce directors. ?Local elections are big; they will show which people will be leaders and how the make-up of the region will look. ?We need the right mix of people with the capacity of getting done what Wellington needs from local government,? says Porirua Chamber of Commerce executive director Simon Calvert.???????????? Inherent ?double-ups? in council services such as district plans and resource consents leads Mr Calvert?to wanting more ?concentration? in some areas. Nine councils are too many for the region?s population and ?reeling in? costs should be a focus. Residential rates in Porirua can be twenty times higher than in Wellington. Mr Calvert puts this down to Porirua being a young city. He says a regional approach is in order to stop territorial favouritism. ?You don?t have to look far; there is the central Wellington stadium, and now this in-door sports stadium. ?If you were thinking logistically, as one region, this would never happen, why would you stick [The Kilbirnie Sports Centre] there, it will cause no end of traffic problems.? Enhancing geography appropriate areas and linking the centres with better rail services should be priorities, says Mr Calvert. Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce executive director David Kiddey says joining council like Hutt City and Upper Hutt are logical moves. ?We would encourage things of that nature, but as for amalgamation of councils we have to wait and see what happens in Auckland and go from there. ?We encourage the councils to share resources, the Hutt already does with water and shared landfills,? says Mr Kiddy. He says cost reduction measures in local government that are efficient will benefit local businesses through better services and lower rates. Mr Kiddy is supportive of the Petone to Grenada link road having priority over a SH58 upgrade. ?In the longer term the Petone to Grenada link will cut out a lot of travel time for our manufacturing and servicing hub. ?Right now they have to go backwards before going up the Ngauranga Gorge,? he says.
