Hastings

Has Fenton “Jong-un” Wilson got the stones to swim in the Tukituki River?

Come on Fenton, take a swim. It’s safe you know.

The cleanliness of the Tukituki River will purportedly be “proven” by Hawke’s Bay Regional and Hastings District councillors this weekend, when they go for a “spring swim” in it – a message proclaimed by posters dotted around Hastings.

The flyers, which went up in the CBD at the weekend, state that councillors will prove to the public that there is no contamination in the Tukituki, by taking a dip in it this Sunday.

Although they feature the logos of both councils on them, representatives have denied any council involvement.

Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule said “this certainly has nothing to do with the council, and it’s certainly not for real”.   Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

MP for Napier Stu Nash has had a massive win today, with his anti amalgamation campaign winning by two to one.

Hawke’s Bay residents have voted overwhelmingly no to a proposal to amalgamate five local councils, a progress result released this afternoon shows.

It was announced today that voters in the Hawke’s Bay have chosen not to amalgamate the Napier, Hastings, Wairoa, Central Hawke’s Bay and Hawke’s Bay regional councils.

About 66.18% of people (44,681) voted no compared to 33.55% (22,649) who voted yes.

This result is based upon the counting of approximately 97% of the returned voting papers (67,511). The voter return is currently 60.87%, being 67,511 voting papers, excluding voting papers in transit to the processing centre.

Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

Local Government NZ Chairman and Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule has a big problem on his home patch with one of his vanity projects.

The much vaunted, scarcely used and very expensive Opera House doesn’t come up to earthquake standards is now closed and fenced off.

Bringing Hastings’ earthquake-prone Opera House complex up to code could cost between $10.7 million and $21.7 million, a report has found.

Hastings District Council commissioned Holmes Consulting Group to investigate strengthening options for the city’s Municipal Building and Hawke’s Bay Opera House complex, much of which has been closed since last year when the earthquake risk was identified by engineers.

The council released the Holmes report today ahead of councillors discussing what to do with the troubled facility.

If it is to be re-opened to the public, the complex must be strengthened to a minimum of 34 per cent of current earthquake load requirements in accordance with building regulations.
The report found meeting those minimum requirements for both the Opera House and the Municipal Building was likely to cost between $10.7 million and $13.2 million.

Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

The disgraceful slum being created in Totara St, Hastings needs to be dealt with. the man who should deal with it is Lawrence Yule, Hastings Mayor and Local Government NZ Chair. His council gave a dodgy developer permission to break the law by putting three terrible houses on a section that did not comply with density regulations.

The ratbag developer who moves properties onto sections without resource consent and without compliance has a track record of breaking the law. Here is a list of slum properties created with dilapidated old houses moved on in high density and rented out cheaply.     Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

Mayor of Hastings and Local Government NZ chairman Lawrence Yule has some pretty tough questions to answer.

He has let a dodgy developer create a slum by illegally putting removable houses on an all too small section, then retrospectively given planning permission.  Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

The Mayor of Hastings and Chair of Local Government NZ, Lawrence Yule, is known for having a council staff that makes compliance tricky and at times arbitrary.

Lawrence spends so much time out of Hastings doing other stuff he has forgotten to look after his constituents. His bureaucrats are known to be pedantic and difficult to deal with, and because the mayor is busy doing so many other things he forgets to clip their wings when they do stupid stuff.

Hastings residents are up in arms that their street has been turned into a slum by a dodgy property developer.

Totara St residents may seek a judicial review after Hastings District Council granted resource consent for houses moved on to a section illegally.

Relocate Homes NZ owner Shannon Tawhiti raised the ire of residents in Totara St, Mahora, last month when he relocated three houses on to a section without the required consent, in a move which also violated housing density rules.

The council last week granted resource consent for the houses, and dispensation for density rules, after it earlier issued an abatement notice requiring their removal.

The consent was granted on the abatement notice’s day of expiry, which Totara St residents’ spokesman Preston Epplett said “seems more than a coincidence and justifies further investigation”.

Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

This is kind of amusing

A police station has been evacuated after a member of the public brought a hand grenade into the building [yesterday]  morning. Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

There is something very beautiful about a political sledge, especially when it points out the obvious.

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton has won two nominations for New Zealand’s Silliest Local Government Spending for the Art Deco Buses and the complete fiasco with the new museum, the MTG. Mayor Bill has proven that the Napier council is incompetent, and the best advertisement for amalgamation, if only to stop Napier politicians making exceptionally stupid decisions.

Mayor Bill seems to think the best line of defence of the indefensible is belligerent attack, and he has been attacking his local mayoral counterpart Lawrence Yule.

Former Councillor John Harrison writes a fantastic opinion piece nailing Mayor Bill for being a ratbag, picking unnecessary fights with Mayor Lawrence and wasting huge amounts of ratepayers money. This oped sledge is such a thing of beauty it needs to be properly honoured.

RECENTLY, the editor of Hawke’s Bay Today pleaded with the mayors of Napier and Hastings to sort out their differences.
The plea followed the latest outburst from Mayor Bill Dalton over the launch of “Great Things Grow Here”.
This professional video was completed at a cost of $50,000 and paid for by the HDC.
It is available free of charge for other councils to use.
Mayor Dalton lambasted Mayor Yule for using “underhand methods and dishonest statements”.
Worse, he ranted that: “It gave the lie to the claim that the HDC wants to work with other councils to promote Hawke’s Bay.” He obviously forgot that the project had been discussed with the NCC over many months prior to the launch.
His deputy, Councillor White – according to a letter published from HDC Councillor Hazlehurst – noted that she was effusive in her praise for the initiative and personally congratulated Mayor Yule.
Mayor Yule responded by saying that this was only a continuation of highly personal attacks launched against him over the past six months by Mayor Dalton.
Here, Mayor Yule is wrong.
Mayor Dalton has conducted an unrelenting and internecine campaign against Mayor Yule by email, blogs and public statements since he was a first-term councillor.
How do I know ?    Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

Labour’s mantra of misery continues as they talk down the New Zealand economy.

Meanwhile it looks like the crisis in the provinces, that they talk about, has come right, at least in the Hawkes Bay.

Job listings in Hastings are up nearly 25 per cent, with growth in agriculture and transport leading the way.

The Trade Me Jobs employment survey for April to June shows the whole country enjoyed high job growth, encouraging people to stay here rather than pack up for Australia.

Listings in Hastings jumped 24 per cent to 458 compared with the same period last year, while Napier flatlined at 398.

Jobs in transport and agriculture were the fastest growing sectors in Hastings, while Napier experienced a drop in hospitality and retail, offset by growth in transport and office work, the report showed.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said it was possible the spike in jobs listings in Hastings could be attributed to a strong rural sector.  Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz

The old saying is that you reap what you sow and if you sow hard work, project harmony and happiness it is little wonder that is what you get back.

Baljit Singh, secretary of the Hastings Sikh Temple, says in the 25 years he has been in Hawke’s Bay he has not experienced any racism towards him or any members of the wider Indian community.

He said the people of Hawke’s Bay have always been “very accepting” of a variety of races, cultures and religions.

“Everyone seems very happy here, I’ve never had any problems, everyone in the Indian culture is very happy here. I’ve been here since 1989 and I’ve never seen any examples of racism.”

Mr Singh said he found it easy to integrate into the wider community when he arrived.  Read more »

Cameron Slater

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.

Love him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

To read Cam’s previous articles click on his name in blue.

http://whaleoil.co.nz