Editorial: Public sick of silly squabbles

Mr Belford claimed that Mrs Scott, other councillors and council managers wanted the Ruataniwha dam built 'at any cost'. Mrs Scott took exception to this. Photo / Glenn Taylor

The fun and games at the Hawke's Bay Regional Council seem to be continuing unabated.

The latest squabble is between councillor Tom Belford and deputy chairwoman Christine Scott over a blog post Mr Belford wrote.

In it, Mr Belford claimed that Mrs Scott, other councillors and council managers wanted the Ruataniwha dam built "at any cost". Mrs Scott took exception to this, saying it was untrue, misleading, offensive and derogatory to her, other councillors and staff.

She has lodged a code of conduct complaint, which was discussed for an hour at yesterday's regional council meeting. Neither party wanted to back down, with both indicating they were not open to mediation. The matter has been referred to an independent investigator.

I can picture many of our readers rolling their eyes when they read this, because unfortunately this is exactly what most people dislike about local body politicians.

People want their councillors, be they on city, district or regional councils, to represent communities and look at issues, not get caught up in petty squabbles.

Whenever we run stories like this in the paper, we get a lot of feedback from readers angry at the councils' waste of time and resources.

When six new regional councillors were elected last year, there was a fair expectation from a lot of people that new life would be breathed into the council. Things would get done and infighting would be a thing of the past.

It is probably time for our councillors to live up to those expectations.