Time to pause and assess economic action plan Accelerate25 - consultant

Lyn Cheyne says the Accelerate25 economic development plan needs to be reviewed. Photo / File

It's time to pause and assess the effectiveness of the Manawatū-Whanganui Economic Action Plan, Lyn Cheyne says.

For four years she marketed Whanganui as a destination, for the Whanganui District Council. Now she's got her own business, Strategy Works, which does destination marketing, tourism and economic development.

The plan, Accelerate25, was launched in 2016 and came out of the Manawatu-Wanganui Regional Growth Study. It found nine economic opportunities for the Horizons Region, and four factors necessary to make them happen.

The four are business growth, skills growth, distribution/transport and digital connectivity.

Accelerate25 has a lead team of 10, headed up by Horizons Regional Council chief executive Michael McCartney. Horizons has put $230,000 and staff time into facilitating the plan, a total of nearly $6,900 so far.

As part of submissions on Horizons' Long-term Plan, ratepayers were asked whether this should be funded from rates only, or from rates and council reserves.

They weren't asked whether it should be funded at all, or whether it was heading in the right direction, Cheyne said. She's been hearing people express "significant frustrations" with aspects of it.

The cost is high for facilitation, which could be considered business as usual.

The plan failed to focus first on the factors needed to enable development. It took an out-dated, "top down", picking winners type of approach.

It made some wrong assumptions, such as that increased tourism in Ruapehu District will flow south into Whanganui and Manawatu. It put emphasis on attracting international students, whereas in Cheyne's opinion it's more important to get local school leavers on to training pathways.

It headed off in new directions from the original document, toward developing Whanganui's port and getting involved in forestry. The outcome has been documents - with little reporting on grassroots engagement.

The region needs economic development because 62 per cent have an annual income of less than $50,000, and because 6 per cent fewer than the national average have any kind of qualification.

Any drive toward economic development can get blurred and muddy and needs continual assessment and fine tuning. Accelerate25 needs it, and Cheyne told Horizons councillors she was willing to discuss this further, outside the submission process.

"Can we just stop for a second and look at the original objectives, what has been achieved, how much progress has been made, what's working, what isn't and reassess the priorities?"