Welcome to 2007. As a hopeless optimist I feel that this year may well lead to increased prosperity for all Far North residents, but as a realist I recognise that we will all need to do something positive to get this to happen.
Back about 50 years Martin Luther King had a big dream which was to move America to being a country where all people had the same rights, regardless of their colour and religion. They haven’t quite got there but a very large part of his dream is now reality. Sadly his dream cost him his life, but thousands live better because of it.
I have a small dream compared to Martin’s but it would lead to a lot of our residents
being better off and it just might happen with help from everyone. I dream that we can live with a council whose main aims are to promptly deliver well-priced and well-valued services to the ratepayers who will be respected for their financial contributions by council staff who have a customer focus and see themselves as there to serve the citizens, rather than the other way round.
Imagine a council that we were proud of where staff met us at times that suited us rather than suiting them, who could explain the district plan to us in clear language and then not have someone else reverse that advice later on. Imagine being able to ring the council and actually get through to the person you want, and if not, being able to leave a message that actually resulted in being rung back promptly. Imagine knowing exactly where the file concerning your property or request actually was rather than chasing it around the various district offices.
Imagine a council with policies that grew the local economy sufficiently to be able to offer our children interesting well paid future prospects here in the Far North, while preserving and improving our environment.
It must be possible, although it certainly isn’t what is happening now.
Does this vision ring a bell with you? I am sure that is what most councillors themselves would like to deliver, but sadly what we are being delivered is frustration, costs, fees and delays, which are holding back our economic development. We are losing opportunities to other areas. I’m not in favour of runaway development but I am in favour of a strong local economy that enables improved services and infrastructure to be delivered at a level that improves both our environment and the well being of our population.
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