Realism needed by Napier Mayor

The suggestion we might have flights to Oz (HBT17/10/12) is premature knowing the background of those involved, though Hawke's Bay's struggling economy could certainly do with the lift in spirit and trade it would provide.

Official accommodation figures for August reveal a whopping  27.8% reduction in motel guest nights this year compared to last. One motel has been liquidated, many others are struggling. Retailers are hurting as is the conference trade. Opera House Chairman John Buck has commented that excessive air fares had made Hawke's Bay unattractive.

Passenger numbers through our airport have have been static compared to four years ago. In comparison during the same period Queenstown airport has experienced a 46% increase in travellers.

Only the thousands of cruise ship passengers visiting us is preventing a meltdown, but we need to be realistic.  The ships look fantastic, deliver essential spending but are not a replacement for our traditional visitors. The reduction in bed nights for August alone was 16 000, about the same number as cruise passengers for an average month during the six month season.

Cruising is likely a major cause of self drive and coach touring dropping off but is more seasonal, and probably less valuable. Nor can we control whether they continue to come here since the reason they do is for scheduling convenience rather than anything else.

I consider the Mayor of Napier to be the single biggest impediment to more destinations plus better and cheaper air services. Surely the state of our economy is a wake up call to the Mayor. We are the bottom ranked economy in the latest ASB regional comparison, the only area in the country with a one star ranking. High unemployment might even be worse if so many people were not leaving to live elsewhere.

Art Deco is great and brings in a lot of people but it seems nothing else matters to Mrs Arnott and it's an excessively narrow focus.

This will probably astonish many people but she recently stated she did not favour better air services for Hawke's Bay people because it would allow them to spend their money elsewhere. At least a couple dozen others heard it as well. This confirms my long held suspicion she opposes better air services and always has.

In 2004 I wrote to her detailing the grossly inaccurate and seriously misleading content in a  council report on trans-Tasman air services. She responded by stating “the media do not know everything”, apparently referring to my working in the media, but completely ignoring the sound and indisputable information I provided.

Incredibly in June 2006 she then effectively gave the discredited report credibility by writing  “One report on the airport  has been considered by Napier and Hastings  which concluded that Hawke's Bay did not have the infrastructure in place to attract and sustain international flights. All existing trans-Tasman airlines have confirmed this.

In 2007when the privately funded $40 000 BERL report was released and calculated there were already sufficient passengers to support direct services to Australia, plus a potential $43 million improvement to regional GDP she simply commented “it was in the public domain”.

Recently (28/07/12 HBT) she was reported as claiming “ to have canvassed every alternative international carrier in terms of flights and none of them have been interested in flying to Hawke's Bay”

Frankly I don't believe it and challenge her to provide proof by way of correspondence, proposals, reports, or minutes, plus appropriate responses rejecting them, to support her claims. Some chance encounter at a flash Air New Zealand sponsored lunch counts for nothing in my view.

For eight years since I first became involved Hawke's Bay people have been forced to pay the outrageous airfares inflicted by a monopoly supplier. It seems those who don't live here have decided to travel elsewhere and unless we restore our competitiveness with other visitor destinations, we will continue to go backwards. We have so much to offer and its a great pity she has not supported the airport with the same enthusiasm as the museum and McLean Park grandstand projects.

Mrs Arnott believes the Local Government reforms will force amalgamation because Hastings has more voters. It seems the only way to progress the airport issue and get all of Hawke's Bay moving again is to remove Mrs Arnott's influence, and it seems the easiest way of doing this is amalgamation.