Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said the Napier City Council had only begun providing funding support for Business Hawkes' Bay this year. Photo / Glenn Taylor
Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said the Napier City Council had only begun providing funding support for Business Hawkes' Bay this year. Photo / Glenn Taylor
Economic development agency Business Hawke's Bay says the province's councils are working collaboratively to attract investment despite a spat over Hastings District Council's decision to launch its own marketing strategy.
The council this week launched a series of videos and a slogan - "Great Things Grow Here" - as partof a campaign to attract investment into the region. The council's decision to spend $50,000 on the marketing effort drew sharp criticism from Napier Mayor Bill Dalton, who said the material had been developed without consultation with the region's other councils.
Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said his council had "made the decision to just get on and do it" but the other councils were welcome to use the material and adapt it.
Business Hawke's Bay chief executive Susan White said yesterday her organisation was working with all the region's councils. "We've got a business attraction planning workshop scheduled for next month and my expectation is that all the councils will participate in that process," she said.
Mr Yule said a comment he made about his council not working with Napier, published in yesterday's Hawke's Bay Today, "was said in a historical context" and was not intended to apply to Hastings' relationship with Mr Dalton and Napier chief executive Wayne Jack.
"I was actually trying to say things are different under the new approach," he said.
Mr Jack said Napier City Council staff "work very hard in working with other councils, and we do take a regional approach". "When Hastings told us they were doing these videos we all said: 'sounds good, let's see how we can work it into a strategy and be involved,' but they never came back on that."
Mr Dalton said while Napier City Council had only this year begun providing funding support for Business Hawkes' Bay, it had previously supported the organisation by providing "manpower and expertise".
