Bay Buzz

A contribution of $100k from Kevin and Penny Atkinson will ensure the new athletics track being installed at Mitre 10 Sport Park incorporates state-of-the-art technology. The resurfacing will ensure the track continues to meet national and international athletics standards in time for the summer season, while remaining an accessible and affordable facility for the wider community.

EIT has marked the opening of a new nursing clinical simulation suite with a blessing at its Hawke’s Bay campus in Taradale. Named after former Chief Executive, the Bruce Martin building, which was damaged during Cyclone Gabrielle, has undergone seismic upgrades and remodelling and now includes Te Kahikatea – Clinical Simulation Suite as well as teaching and office spaces.

Virtually every week I see some alarming reference to projected population growth for Hawke’s Bay. Typically, this vaunted population growth is used to dramatise the need for infrastructure growth in the region – more housing, more energy and, of course, more water (i.e., dams). This anticipated growth seems mythical in scale. It is not happening. And there’s no reason to believe that it will change without unprecedented migration into our region. Compare the follow two charts.

Hawke’s Bay-grown telco NOW will see its brand ‘retired’ over the next nine months, with the loss of roughly 70 jobs across four locations. Mercury, 100% owner, made the announcement this past week, saying it was just shutting down the brand, not the services. Not sure how that squares with job losses. The company started out in 2002 as a small rural wireless internet provider servicing a few happy Hawke’s Bay locals … like me.

HB’s councils have retained two facilitators to help sort their reorganisation options in response to the Government’s Head Start ‘invitation’ – Lawrence Yule and Malcolm Alexander. Yule is well known as a long-serving Hasting mayor (and Tukituki MP); most relevant to this assignment, Alexander served eight years as chief executive of Local Government NZ.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Chief Executive (CE) Dr Nic Peet has announced his resignation, after three years in the job. His last day in the role will be Thursday 9 July. Chris Dolley, HBRC’s Asset Management Group Manager has been named as acting CE. In a statement to staff this week, Dr Peet said given the enormous period of change the local government sector was facing, it was appropriate that new leadership picked up the reins.

[As published in July/August 2026 BayBuzz magazine.] I first met Te Rangi Huata in 2001 when I was a stall-holder and manager of the Farmers’ Market. Te Rangi was instrumental in the national rekindling of the neglected flame of Matariki. He suggested that the Farmers’ Market was a good place to celebrate the event. So with the backing of the stall-holders and financial support from Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Inc we staged a Matariki festival.

You would be hard pressed to find any politician who will say that more transparency is a bad idea. Candidates run campaigns on increasing transparency, current Hastings Mayor included. It’s easy to see why, promising transparency seems like a free lunch. No cost and popular with voters. It usually doesn’t work quite that easily after the election, with commercial sensitivity and other realities kicking in. In that spirit, I would like to congratulate the councils of Hawke’s Bay.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has adopted its Annual Plan for 2026-27, confirming an average rates increase of 5.2% for the coming year, lower than the 8.5% forecast in Council’s Three-Year Plan 2024-27. This will meet a rates requirement of $55.9 million.

When Napier Mayor Richard McGrath gets sick of doing the “big boy stuff” in his office, he grabs his basketball and heads across the road to shoot some hoops and chat with whoever he comes across. “That’s my happy place. Listening to what our community has to say,” McGrath said. It’s been eight months since McGrath was elected as mayor of the city, beating incumbent Kirsten Wise by 3422 votes and fellow councillor Nigel Simpson by 6196.