Tom Belford

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.