Local Focus: Vast challenges and opportunities for Martinborough, Greytown and Featherston

Around the country, mayors are reaching the half-way point in their three-year terms. Local Focus journalist Patrick O'Sullivan talked with South Wairarapa District Council Viv Napier about what makes the district special and the challenges ahead.

Your rates dollar has to reach a long way in South Wairarapa, mayor Viv Napier says.

The district is unusual with three towns: Martinborough, Featherston and Greytown as well as an extensive rural area, all the way to Cook Strait.

"Our big challenge is always a low rating base and a big geographic area," she said.

The large network of roads was an expense, with many yet to be sealed and three towns meant a duplication of services such as sewage, libraries and swimming pools.

Entry to the pools was free in summer which was "amazingly successful", Napier said.

The South Wairarapa District Council is ahead of many other New Zealand councils at wastewater management, with its town sewage systems all sprayed onto land.

The positives for the district were vast, she said.

She said South Wairarapa was within commuting distance to Wellington; had a superior climate; a diverse economy; and a wide range of tourist activities.

Until recently, the district was viewed as having an ageing population but families were moving in, thanks in part to housing which remained cheaper than metropolitan areas.

Napier said future planning was a council priority.

"Working out what people want in their towns - where they want to have development and where they really want to really go into the future."

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