Bailey backing himself for seat

Napier resident Paul Bailey will be standing for Hawke's Bay Regional Council in the local government elections later this year.

Environmental advocate, former Green Party candidate and life-long Hawke's Bay resident Paul Bailey is throwing his hat in the ring, standing as a Napier ward councillor for Hawke's Bay Regional Council in the local government elections.

Mr Bailey, who has been involved in politics for the past seven years, said he was standing because he "believes that the Hawke's Bay Regional Council was no longer the protector of the environment they were supposed to be".

He said the council was ignoring its responsibilities under the Resource Management Act and given the focus on the promotion of the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme, he believed "HBRC has turned poacher when they should be the gamekeeper".

"As someone who thinks Hawke's Bay is the best place in the world to live I want to see HBRC focusing on what it should be focusing on: the protection of the environment so that our natural resources remain available for the enjoyment and use of future generations."

He said he was disappointed by the way council seemed to make ad-hoc decisions not underpinned by research, and he wished to bring an evidence-based approach to setting policy.

The Napier resident said he would work to ensure council staff understood their role was to implement policy only, as "it is the role of elected councillors to set policy."

He said one of the "big issues" was around council governance, and said current Napier ward councillors were not being the governors they should be.

"They have continued to be a rubber stamp for council staff, especially around the Heretaunga Aquifer and RWSS," he said. He believed Napier residents deserved representatives on council who would challenge and reject "untenable recommendations" made by staff.

Another issue was the "ad-hoc" enforcing of resource consent conditions, and he was concerned council continued to place monitoring conditions on resource consents but then failed to enforce them, citing the pollution limit for the Tukituki catchment, Waihi Dam, and Central Hawke's Bay waste treatment plants.

Other issues he was hot included the risk of privatisation of the Port of Napier and erosion of Westshore Beach.

Mr Bailey was "really excited" about running, and said he thought council was far more prominent in people's minds than it had been last election.

"Hawke's Bay is a fantastic place to live, but our environmental resources are being put under stress. We cannot have a healthy economy and society without a healthy environment."

Mr Bailey said while he had a coffee with political strategist Simon Lusk, and they agreed on many things, he was not planning on using him to run his campaign.