Editorial: Big issues ratchet up interest

The latest round of the Hastings District Council's long term plan hearings has been quite an eye opener by all accounts.

The plan is reviewed every three years and in 2006 there were 116 submissions, while there were 148 submissions in 2009.

This time there have been a staggering 642 submissions, of which 134 are being presented in person.

The council is hearing submissions this week.

This is quite a considerable leap in the interest by ratepayers in the future of the Hastings area.

The reason for the flurry of interest seems to be because of some major issues that have either been around for a while or have come up recently.

Quite a number of the submissions relate to the question of coastal erosion, which is a very emotive subject - not only for people who care about our coastline - but most particularly people who own land or property in the affected areas.

The other issue drawing quite a few submissions is fracking.

This is interesting because there has been not oil or gas exploration proposed for the Hastings district. But then again, fracking has become such a hot-button issue in Hawke's Bay, so people probably just want to get their point across. It is no surprise to hear that most of submissions are from people who are opposed to it.

The level of fear and antagonism towards fracking seems to be growing, but the situation is not helped by the fact that those who could tell us what the economic benefits to the region could be, have so far been quiet on the subject.

Debate cannot begin unless we can evaluate whether the economic benefits are worth any risks.

The third major issue under the spotlight is a subject I wrote about just the other day - the Hastings CBD.

This is something people have strong feelings about and hopefully the council can get some good ideas out of these hearings to help them in their plans to rejuvenate parts of the CBD.

Quite interestingly Lawrence Gullery, our reporter covering the hearings, tells me that he has been surprised by the number of organisations asking the council for money.

The local SPCA is one, but it seems that in these tough economic times, other organisations are struggling a bit and with no money coming from central government, they are turning to the local council for help.

By the time the hearings end next Tuesday, Hastings councillors will be glad that they are over. Hopefully they will be enthused by the level of interest and passion people have for the district. It would also be good if they came away with a number of good ideas to make the area some of us live in even better than it is.

Let's hope they make the right decisions.