Tom Belford

New Zealand

Editor and Publisher at Bay Buzz

What's happening in Hawke's Bay NZ

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Articles

Heretaunga water group shows promise

1 week ago | baybuzz.co.nz | Tom Belford

Irrigators drawing upon the Heretaunga aquifer and waterways are unifying in a new lobby group, Heretaunga Sustainable Water (HSW). Initially motivated by frustrations with the HB Regional Council’s implementation of new water allocation rules, growers are moving toward a more comprehensive long-term agenda regarding water use and security for the central part of the region.
Ahuriri Regional Park … on the right path?

1 week ago | baybuzz.co.nz | Tom Belford

The Napier City Council recently completed consultation on its draft ‘Masterplan’ for the Ahuriri Regional Park. Ultimately what’s at stake is whether the Ahuriri estuary continues to be a dumping receptacle for industrial and urban stormwater and agricultural run-off or is rescued as an ecological treasure. NCC has represented its plans as foremost an environmental and recreational project, but even those two positive objectives can collide.
Matt Lawson becomes CEO of Wairoa Council

1 week ago | baybuzz.co.nz | Tom Belford

Mayor Craig Little says “Good for Wairoa!” Matt takes his new position 1 July. First a bit of background on Matt, well-known in the HB local government community, then his comments to BayBuzz follow. Matt was born and raised in Napier and completed his schooling at St Johns College, Hastings.He commenced practice in Napier in 1991 having completed the degrees of Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws at Otago University.
Opportunity for change

2 weeks ago | baybuzz.co.nz | Tom Belford

Here’s the biggest issue in the upcoming election season: TRUST. Trust between our communities and their representatives has eroded significantly. The hundreds of comments and emails BayBuzz receives confirm this—ratepayers are frustrated, angry, suspicious, and demanding accountability. Our current BayBuzz poll (releasing later in June) reveals deep voter dissatisfaction with council performance.
Lifting the fog at HBRC

2 weeks ago | baybuzz.co.nz | Tom Belford

Former HBRC Chair Rex Graham has been battling his former council over lax enforcement of seasonal burning bans … specifically the burning of orchard waste. Graham has supplied numerous photos over recent weeks to press his case. HBRC either writes these off as fog or says they can’t find the sources. Basically, they’re saying Graham is blowing smoke. So, is it innocent fog or harmful smoke?
“Export is the heart of our beating lives”

3 weeks ago | baybuzz.co.nz | Tom Belford

In Hawke’s Bay, we don’t make wine, raise beef cattle and sheep, milk dairy cows, grow apples and squash, or harvest pine trees to meet the food and fibre needs of our region, or even the wider population of New Zealand. We produce virtually all of this stuff for overseas consumers. So let’s get real, they – not you and I – are our masters when it comes to both the price paid for our production, and equally importantly, the acceptable conditions in which that production occurs.
Watching the sprinklers

3 weeks ago | baybuzz.co.nz | Tom Belford

And watchdogging our councils. In ‘another day at the office’, BayBuzz recently received a concern from a council employee that the the sprinkler systems intended to protect collections (and lives) at both MTG and the under-construction HB Regional Museum Research and Archives Centre were not able to function properly – it was alleged water pressure was too low in both cases. So, we inquired of Napier City Council, present custodian of the valuable artifacts.
Sandra Hazlehurst looks ahead

1 month ago | baybuzz.co.nz | Tom Belford

Thursday night BayBuzz reported Sandra Hazlehurst’s announcement that she would not be standing for re-election as Hastings mayor. Friday we caught up with the Mayor for a chat about her decision and what next. It’s four months too soon for a valedictory, but here are some initial observations.
NCC to cut staff … enough?

1 month ago | baybuzz.co.nz | Tom Belford

In today’s stressed economic climate, for the most part the only people who oppose cutting our councils’ staffs are the employees who might lose their jobs. But to those looking on from the outside, it seems the cuts cannot be draconian enough. Take the current Napier City Council staff ‘restructuring’ as an example of the challenge faced by all councils.
A development strategy with no teeth?

1 month ago | baybuzz.co.nz | Tom Belford

After very extensive background work that began in early 2023, on 19 May the Napier-Hastings Future Development Strategy Joint Committee adopted its Strategy for how residential, commercial and industrial land development (i.e., growth) should occur on the Heretaunga region over the next ten years. At which point the plan must be reviewed. Note the italics on ‘should ’ … I’ll come back to that.