Hastings Mayor’ Column: Sandra Hazlehurst reflects on the year

Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst. Photo / Paul Taylor

OPINION

As we approach the end of 2023 there’s much to reflect on – it has been a challenging and busy year.

Cyclone Gabrielle has defined this year for Heretaunga Hastings, it’s taken a lot of hard mahi on many fronts to firstly respond, and then start to navigate the complex journey to recovery.

Our communities have been a huge support for each other throughout and after the event – it’s been incredibly humbling to spend time with those impacted as well as those assisting them.

For our council, the cyclone necessarily demanded a lot of our attention, but we have still managed to complete many projects in our work programme to achieve the goals within our Long Term Plan, as consulted on with our community.

Following the Havelock North water crisis in 2016, safe drinking water became the council’s top priority and it was very pleasing to open the Waiaroha Heretaunga Water Discovery Centre in October - the final element of our five-year programme to upgrade the drinking water network.

Homes for our people is another important piece of work and we have made significant progress this year in preparing three council-owned sites in Flaxmere for 150 affordable homes to be built by our development partners.

This adds to the hundreds of market homes that continue to be built around the district, multiple consent applications being put forward for papakāinga, and Kāinga Ora’s ongoing building programme.

The revitalisation of our city centre continues - an exciting development this year was the opening of the new Quest Hotel – the first such hotel in our city that will support visitor and business activity.

Also in the city centre, work began building the new Hawke’s Bay Museum, Research and Archives Centre at 307 Queen St East – providing a safe, fit-for-purpose home for our valuable regional museum collection.

With the support of the community, council took ownership of the Tōmoana Showgrounds to protect this as a much-valued green space, and also enhance it as an event venue. We will be working with our stakeholders to find a solution to replace the grandstand, which sadly is too unsafe to use.

It was exciting to reopen the upgraded Splash Planet this year. We’ve had lots of school groups through over the past few weeks enjoying the revamped facilities and we look forward to welcoming lots of visitors over summer.

Our community has also been enjoying the newly upgraded St Leonard’s Park playground, it’s often busy with families making the most of this conveniently located green space.

Looking ahead, 2024 is going to be another very busy year for the council and our community as we continue the recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle.

In the meantime, I wish you all a very happy and restful Christmas and New Year, and may 2024 be calm and bright for everyone.