Trish Giddens: Standing alone, standing still

Trish Giddens

Most will know I am a strong advocate for an "Amalgamated local government, Hawke's Bay". For all the very good reasons forwarded by others supporting regional wide governance, and with no disrespect to any past or current staff or councillors, I at this point, with an emphasis of best value for our money, fully endorse my stance, just more so.

My first term (of four) for Central Hawke's Bay District Council was much about gaining insight and the knowledge required to govern responsibly over the management of our ratepayers' money. Into the second term and it soon became evident we needed to be a part of a greater body to be sustainable and appreciate high quality outcomes.

We received virtually nil attendance by non-council personnel to standard council meetings, annual plan meetings were somewhat depleted of interest and voice by the community and there was little vitality from most, bar those who were directly affected by an issue.

With many of my fellow past councillors (one still current) and past mayor Tim Gilbertson, it wasn't and hasn't been difficult to assess the fact that we did not and do not have the capacity and capability to continue as we were and currently are.

These people with many years' experience in local government have also contributed much in the way of time and support to our community.

With nothing to gain but the best for CHB's future, they like me, advocate for this to be so.

Findings of research regarding shared services versus amalgamation proved while amalgamation didn't promise extraordinary large savings initially, over time they did and, more importantly, the level of decision-making and contribution of higher expertise, gave good quality outcomes.

When restanding for the mayoralty, I campaigned on the worth of amalgamation for us in CHB, and found there were many misnomers and not a lot of factual information known to our constituents, resulting in fear of the unknown.

As the past manager of the CHB Hospital, I recall the government direction when we were threatened with the closure of the hospital.

There was much protest and a march with loudspeakers, lots of passionate members of the public, media and the shout of "save our hospital".

Fortunately, at that time, we had a very proactive council, who acknowledged the changes in healthcare provision and that it would not be good use of the health dollar to continue to maintain a large hospital, especially when we were not in a position to continue to provide high quality specialist care.

With this foresight, the council worked hard and proactively fought for CHB to have the next best thing.

We must be grateful to the council of that time for, as a result of many special meetings, proposals and trips to Wellington, we were very fortunate to secure a new build of a health centre (with beds). I would like to think in the future, we can look back and be grateful to our council of today for taking this opportunity and playing their part in ensuring they have worked proactively to get the best deal and representation for CHB.

To all of Hawke's Bay and in particular CHB, find the answers to your questions to consider your future and that of your young family members and vote to amalgamate. Imagine if we don't. We in CHB live in a beautiful part of the region and have much to share, however as a standalone council, we simply can't afford ourselves and deserve better.

-Trish Giddens is a former mayor of Central Hawke's Bay.

-Business and civic leaders, organisers, experts in their field and interest groups can contribute opinions. The views expressed here are the writer's personal opinion, and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz.

-Viewpoints on the amalgamation debate can be submitted for consideration and will be used as long as no council resources, money, time or expertise are used in their preparation. This is a requirement of the Local Government Act 2002.