I HAVE read online the 609-page long-term plan 2024-2034, which Whakatāne District Council has sent off to be audited.

When it has been audited, the council will then, approximately on June 26, vote to adopt it, or not.

On pages 177-78 I read: “Financial Strategy Objectives: Minimising impact on ratepayer now and in future.

Achieving outcome: need to drive strategic goals that aim to drive growth and improvement.

Ensuring financial prudence.

Reflect fairness and equality.”

Goals: “Value for money – proposals for expenditure must contribute to the strategic outcomes agreed with the community and the total cost must be reasonable. The cost-effectiveness of the funding mechanism must be reasonable.”

The council seems to not adhere to its goals “value for money” criteria by unwisely investing community money, and signing up as partners in the Te Rāhui Herenga Waka boat harbour project where costs are prohibitive to remediate and develop contaminated land.  

The council has not been prudent with ratepayers’ money on other projects – the civic centre, and tidal pool come to mind.

The council seems to focus more on wellbeing, nice-to-have projects.

Councillors are dedicated to their jobs. I appreciate the time and effort they put into their jobs. They have vision – long-term vision for boat harbour, arts event hubs and sports event centres.  

These are great visions, however, they also need to focus on the present and short term. The present economy dictates due care and diligence and infrastructure must be a priority.

Receiving a credit rating that will cost $50,000 to $60,000 a year is not a wise decision.

The credit rating enables low lending rates, however, a debt is a debt and has to be paid. I find the long-term plan heading “Using Debt Wisely” a dubious  juxtaposition.

At a recent council living together meeting (June 6), I learned the council has already engaged an adviser, Leanne Jordan from Dauntless Advisory Waikato, to help develop and adopt a creative arts hub.

The cost of Dauntless Advisory services is unknown, but will likely be daunting.

The council is considering a number of options for the arts hub – the former Wally Sutherland site, Rex Morpeth Hub and other non-council sites.

The council regularly engages advisers and consultants. I consider projects should be handled internally by existing council staff and not outsourced.  

The council’s recent engagements  with consultants and advisers have  amounted to $5 million annually.

In the long-term plan there is provision for 32 new jobs in the next three years.

This is not financial prudence and not in the best interest of the district in the long term, nor short term.

The LTP rates have landed on – 2025, 15 percent; 2026, 12.7 percent; 2027, 9.5 percent.

By 2027, rates will have increased by 42 percent. That means rates of $4500 a year will increase to $6386.

In my opinion, the council has not reduced its expenditure enough. The rates increases for the next three years are excessive.

There are many ways the council can further reduce its expenditure .

In the long-term plan submissions, submitter’s gave sensible, serious solutions on how to prune the council’s spending.

The plan’s 609-page presentation is impressive in its size and intentions, but is full of pleasantries, tokenism and platitudes.

I do not understand how the council thinks this plan is acceptable, affordable or achievable.

It should go back to the drawing board.

Catrina Jones

Genuine consultation needed

I WAS wrong. By nature both cynical and sceptical, I had a brief moment of hope when ratepayers were invited by Whakatāne District Council to make submissions to the long-term plan.

Both publicly and privately, I encouraged people to become involved – “if you don’t become involved, nothing will change”.

Time after time I was told “there’s no point, they won’t/don’t listen”, but still this little flicker of hope stayed alive.

How wrong I was and how right they were. I attended many of the council meetings, submissions to the long-term plan and others.  

There were many submissions, eloquently, passionately and intelligently put.

Most councillors appeared to be listening and the voting showed that some were, and they voted accordingly, but they were outnumbered by those who were not.  

For me, the statement by one councillor that “97 percent of rates are paid so this shows they are affordable” stands out, proving how out of touch they are with the real world.  

Yes, people pay their rates but what do they sacrifice in order to do so?  Heating, food, warm clothes for the children?

There is no point in inviting consultation and submission if there is no intention to genuinely consider what is offered.  It becomes just another waste of money.

Gaynor Clements

Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Whakatāne Hospital

MAGNETIC Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of a number of diagnostic imaging techniques that is used for looking inside the body to help doctors diagnose disease.

Unlike X-ray CT scanning, which uses X-rays to see into the body, MRI uses a magnetic field and radio frequency pulses to detect hydrogen which is present in different amounts in different types of anatomical structures.

MRI and X-ray CT are complementary imaging techniques.

X-ray CT has excellent resolution and is better at imaging more dense structures in 3D while MRI is better at “seeing” soft tissue.

At Whakatāne Hospital we are fortunate enough to have a modern X-ray CT instrument, but we have not had MRI.

As I write, an MRI instrument is being installed in our hospital and that’s a big deal.

Installation of the instrument is expected be completed by the end of the year.

This will give the Eastern Bay an awesome capability right here in our little hospital, which will avoid the need for folk to travel to Tauranga to get their scan.

The MRI (Siemens MAGNETOM Sola 1.5T) will be owned and operated by Bay Radiology.

Come to Grey Power’s monthly meeting next week to hear Sergio Fernandes, the Bay Radiology operations manager, talk about what they are doing at Whakatāne Hospital.

Sergio was born in Lisbon, Portugal, where he also started his career in medical imaging.

He has worked in the UK and Australia before joining Bay Radiology in Tauranga six years ago.

With a background in MRI, Sergio has been involved in several expansion projects, with Whakatāne MRI the most recent one.

The talk will be focused on explaining what MRI is and what its advantages and disadvantages are.

From there will follow a discussion on the importance of having this imaging modality available to the Eastern Bay population and what impact it will have on improving health outcomes.

The meeting will be held in the Knox Presbyterian Church hall on Domain Road on Wednesday, June 19, starting at 10am.

Raewyn Kingsley Smith

NZTA should change its policy on traversing rugged topography

THE recent issues faced by the Brynderwyn Hills road, which has already suffered significant weather-related disruptions despite being newly completed, highlight a critical flaw in New Zealand’s current infrastructure policy.

It is imperative the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) reconsiders its approach to traversing rugged topography and prioritises the use of tunnels over traditional overland routes.

Traditional overland roads in regions prone to severe weather events are not only vulnerable but also economically inefficient.

The Brynderwyn Hills road, for instance, requires frequent and costly repairs, with annual maintenance costs estimated at $5 million and major repairs every five years costing $20 million each.

This cycle of repair and disruption is not only financially draining, but also disrupts critical freight routes, leading to additional costs estimated at $36.5 million annually due to detours and congestion.

In contrast, constructing a tunnel through such terrain, though initially more expensive, offers significant long-term benefits.

A tunnel for the Brynderwyn Hills route would have an estimated construction cost of $250 million, with annual maintenance costs of only $1 million.

Over a 30-year period, this translates to substantial savings, avoiding the repeated major repairs that plague overland roads.

Moreover, the tunnel provides a reliable and uninterrupted route to the proposed North Port, crucial for freight transport, reducing travel time and vehicle operating costs.

The avoided disruption costs alone could save $1.095 billion over 30 years.

The Net Present Value of the tunnel, at $990.2 million, far exceeds that of the overland road, which stands at $418.5 million.

NZTA’s policy must shift towards embracing modern engineering solutions, like tunnel-boring machines to build resilient infrastructure that withstands New Zealand’s challenging weather conditions.

This shift not only ensures economic efficiency, but also enhances safety and reliability, crucial for our nation’s long-term prosperity.

Graeme Weston

Nature hikoi

FOR those interested in nature, this is the time to plant trees. Pop in and see Halo, who do amazing local conservation work (opposite the isite).

If you can’t help with planting, please donate a tree or give them a koha.

Below is their website to see what they are up to and join their events ... it’s a great day out with the kids.

https://www.halowhakatane.org.nz

Jannie Brown

Deserve a backlash

I WISH to make a complaint about the wording in a letter to the editor in The Beacon on Wednesday.

Lisa Eve took exception to a statement made by “two older white men”.

Was she writing about the colour of their T-shirt, or their shoes or the colour of their skin?

I suspect the latter, and am appalled that letter was published.

She then went on to say they hated her. How can she assume that from the four words quoted?

They obviously didn’t approve of what she was protesting about, but certainly didn’t say they hated her, as she claims.

They weren’t “hateful” about her or her 11-year-old son as per the last paragraph.

If I was to make a comment about a black man’s or a white ladies’ or a brown child’s actions or words in public, I would expect and deserve a backlash.

Julie Meekel

• Editor responds: The word “white” was unnecessary in this instance and would usually have been removed, however, it slipped through on this occasion.

Education model is failing

TO be more explicit: a conversation around academic achievement cannot occur without a holistic approach to wellbeing.

Simply, the world has changed, and the education system our children are pushed through has not.

The report Ann Fletcher referred to reveals a quarter of the recent cohort of primary teachers failed NCEA level 1 maths and more than half failed level 1 science.

They’re the output of the current system, evidence that our education model is failing.

Thirty-one percent of principals are working 61-90 hours a week. More than a third intend to leave the profession in the next two years, citing the support system as “archaic”.

Eighty-nine percent of principals agree supporting wellbeing or mental health needs is among the top issues facing their school, and the effects are felt in the workplace too: one in five young people (15-24 years old) report high to very high levels of mental distress in the past four weeks.

The leading causes of distress for young people are uncertain futures, social media and safety online, racism and discrimination, whānau wellbeing and intergenerational connections.

The Government talks about attendance, as if parents and kids are just swanning around.

Actually, schools report a large number of students either juggling studies with part-time work to support families or leaving school to work.

Schools themselves ask our disabled or troubled children to stay home or only attend part-time because they can’t support them.

Attracting teachers has become a dire situation and our local schools are struggling to appoint in vacant situations, and to resource relief.

The system hasn’t kept up with the changes in both the school environment and the wider world.  

The old teacher as expert/blackboard-directed learning days are gone.

We are overwhelmed by information – we literally have access to all the knowledge in the world. What we lack is preventative health support.

This is why I advocate for wellbeing first – because we can learn the math required for our chosen jobs, if we have a love of learning, and if we are alive.

Instead, the data on mental health shows people literally rotting in their beds due to depression, failure to manage social media and teenage girls’ health has plummeted as a result.

Until we deconstruct and rebuild the education system (a sentiment shared my many experienced school board members and principals), any Government minister will struggle to address the lack of people support for wellbeing (shortage of counsellors, waiting lists for psychs), the lack of resourcing for neurodiversity and trauma-affected students, failure to address poverty-related and family harm-related impact on education, harmful streaming for Māori and Pasifika students, lack of teachers, full stop.

When schools have to break up classes to just achieve supervision for the day or ask students to stay home – it doesn’t matter how good your teachers are at teaching math.

Ashlee Sturme