Business keen to relocate to the Bay

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton addresses Hawke's Bay Democratic Action Association's meeting, which also heard from chairman Ian Dick (centre) and Napier MP Stuart Nash. Photo / Duncan Brown

A 100-staff business from outside the region is talking to Napier City Council about relocating to Hawke's Bay, Napier Mayor Bill Dalton says.

He declined to identify the business but said it was one of several the council was negotiating with that were interested in shifting operations to the Bay.

He said the businesses' interest in the region was one example of Napier being "on a roll" at present and showed "great things" were happening without the need for amalgamation.

Mr Dalton was speaking at the AGM of anti-amalgamation group Hawke's Bay Democratic Action Association, also known as Dedicated and Democratic (DAD), which attracted about 30 attendees in Greenmeadows yesterday. "When we're talking to these people [who are investigating moving to the region] we tell the whole Hawke's Bay story," Mr Dalton said.

"If we're talking to a group or a business and they want to come to Hawke's Bay and they decide the Whakatu industrial area [in the Hastings district] is the right place for them, then that's where they should go. It's all good for Hawke's Bay."

After the meeting, he declined to give any further details about the 100-staff business, but said he was confident it would move to Hawke's Bay.

Attendees at the meeting included Napier MP Stuart Nash, Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Peter Butler, former Napier mayors Barbara Arnott and Alan Dick, and Mike Butler of the group Hastings Against Amalgamation.

Mr Nash said that while he knew he was "preaching to the converted" he did not agree with the argument Hawke's Bay would be better promoted at a national level through a single mayor representing the entire region, rather than the current structure of four mayors and a regional council chair.

The Labour MP said anti-amalgamation signs put up by Mr Butler and others in Central Hawke's Bay represented "the first time in my life I don't mind seeing blue hoardings".

Mr Dick, now a Hawke's Bay regional councillor and the association's treasurer, said DAD planned to distribute an anti-amalgamation leaflet to every home in the region before voting packs were mailed out on August 24.

At the meeting, concrete contractor and former Napier City councillor Ian Dick (no relation) was re-elected as DAD chairman.