What Wairarapa?s submissions say

UNLESS there was a tunnel put through Rimutaka Hill, Wairarapa would not benefit from the Wellington Regional Strategy, according to one Wairarapa submission.
Commenting on the strategy's plan for "regional form", Ian Lucas of Mt Bruce said, "unless a tunnel is put through the Rimutaka Hill, Wairarapa will gain no benefit from this".
Mr Lucas was one of 421 submitters to the strategy, and others Wairarapa people wanted the strategy to have more rural focus, less bureacracy or more focus on the environment.
Mr Lucas said no-one on the strategy's 12-person committee had a rural link and rural ratepayers "will wind up the cash cow for Wellington City progress".
Commenting on growing exports, Mr Lucas said, "Most of Wairarapa's produce (meat and wool) is exported from other ports as there are no killing facilities in Wairarapa."
Former South Wairarapa Mayor John Read, of Martinborough, says there should be strong business leadership, including rural business, on the strategy committee, as "most local body people have no idea on business ? only politics".
Mr Read, along with Masterton Mayor Bob Francis and former Carterton Georgina Beyer, had pushed for Wairarapa's inclusion in the Regional Mayoral Forum that began the strategy.
Mr Read said the "regional form" and export parts of the strategy were written by and for city people.
Robin Startup of Masterton, a retired planning manager for the former Wairarapa Hospital Board, wrote in support of the strategy. Mr Startup said the public needed to own the strategy's ideas. "We, the people of the Wellington region, are the region ? whether we live in Kapiti or Wairarapa we are regionally Wellington."
Denise MacKenzie, former Labour candidate for Wairarapa, said while she agreed regional partnerships were important, she wouldn't support anything that would jeopardise Go Wairarapa, "which has proved its effectiveness as a stand-alone agency".
Mrs MacKenzie said many in Wairarapa would identify with Manawatu and Hawkes Bay rather than with Wellington, including exports through Napier, and "we need to have flexibility regarding alliances with regions apart from Wellington."
Mrs McKenzie said the strategy should be seen as an extra for Wairarapa, funded at similar levels to what we now pay without further rate increases.
Anders Crofoot of Castlepoint Station echoed the rates concerns of some other Wairarapa submitters in opposing a capital value rate, listing the WestpacTrust stadium as an example. "Five years ago, we paid $92.45 to support the stadium; this year we will pay $144."
Mr Crofoot said pulling funding out of Go Wairarapa would doom it, and restricting them to tourism only would "starve them of funding" to run their office.
G. Blathwayt of Masterton said the regional strategy has "an awful lot of jargon, making it difficult to absorb".
Mr Blathwayt said he was concerned with "yet another beauracracy ? we have too many already".
Mr Blathwayt said it was hard to identify benefits for rural areas and "we will be lucky to coat-tail areas of high population and their interests".
Ian Wishart of the Loopline, Masterton, said he viewed "with great concern the regional council getting involved with business".
"History tells us that Government involvement does not work and costs will rise ? exceeding any advantage," Mr Wishart said. "Accountability is what we need."
Federated Farmers said the main contribution councils could make to the Wellington region's citizens "is to minimise the rates and regulatory burdens they impose".
Wairarapa president Jim Weston, in his submission, said Federation Farmers was "totally opposed to a capital value rate being collected from farm land for the spurious benefit of urban businesses", and "using WRS figures a typical one-family farm would pay $300 to $400 a year."
The strategy committee has reportedly considered other methods of funding, like a flat residential rate.
Errol Bruce of Masterton said, "Unless a serious improvement in regularity of public transport through the Rimutaka Tunnel and cost to users kept very low, people will continue to view car and truck transport as more convenient. You need to change that attitude, to encourage a greener use of transport."
Sustainable Wairarapa were among several submitters saying the strategy needed to do more to address climate change; some submitters said it should address the effect of a rise in sea levels on Wellington.
John Gleisner for Wairarapa Watch said the strategy should not focus on "traditional economic growth", which relies on fuel.
John Rhodes of Greytown agreed, saying calling the idea of sustainable growth an "oxymoron".
The New Zealand Institute of Forestry said the strategy had overlooked the importance of forestry to the Wellington region. Andrew McEwen, chairman of the southern North Island section, said the strategy should provide infrastructure for "production forestry", encouraging the processing of logs instead of exporting them unprocessed.
The New Zealand Forest Owners Association said the strategy should call for the Wellington region to be "carbon neutral".
Roger Kerr, Chairman of the Business Roundtable, had been asked to comment on the strategy, and he said the strategy "lacks an economic framework".
Mr Kerr said the reason for the Wellington region's lack of performance was that "council policies have not been conducive to making the region attractive for business."
He said businesses could work together where beneficial and "do not need the "helping hand of council bureaucrats or ratepayer funding".
Mr Kerr said the regional strategy did not refer to research that showed the quality of government and policy was what mattered most for growth.
In regions, this meant "the proper role of councils, the need for them to focus on ... core public goods; ... exiting commercial activities and leaving them to the private sector ... the level and structure of rates ... a minimum of regulation."
Mr Kerr said business development is "facilitated by limited government, in the form of light spending, rating and regulatory burdens."
Other submitters included chambers of commerce, Victoria and Massey universities, polytechnics, community boards and groups.
About half the submitters were from Upper Hutt residents, whose council has criticised the strategy as drawing funds from the provinces to benefit Wellington City, and as an attempt to control where development can occur.
Norman Griffin of Upper Hutt said the strategy is an attempt to "create another bureaucratic empire" and to "make the group of bureaucrats comfortable and answerable to no-one".
Maurice and Margaret Gardner of Upper Hutt call the strategy "an attempt to enshrine Wellington city as the regional kingpin, getting the lion's share of revenue relegating outlying cities to suburban status."
One submitter said they did not want "the parasitical nature of Wellington City prolonged more than the market will allow it. If the city dies, it dies".