The Hutt Valley deserves better

My first Blog! And yes two cities with a combined population of 250,000 + really do matter.

Situated as they are in areas of natural beauty with amazing facilities, they deserve to be honoured and looked after by people who really appreciate the significant asset to New Zealand that they represent.

But are they being looked after and developed by people who have the appropriate levels of expertise and capability?

I think not. I recently met with the Mayor of Lower Hutt; David Ogden. You know he really should look at taking retirement village living at the earliest opportunity.

He could look after the Village Community Centre; making the morning tea, cleaning the brass and arranging flowers. Like they do in heaven!

Because it seems to me, that he has done precious very little else whilst being Mayor of Lower Hutt. Perhaps that not fair as he has looked after the finances well; perhaps its now time to release the brakes a little and bring in a new person that will aggressively take the town into the future.

The town centre is a disaster and has a derelict feel about it with many vacant shops and a standard of care and service that defies description.

And it needn’t be so. With some innovative town planning and a team working together it could be a wonderful Mecca for all the people of the region.

In a recent exhibition at the Dowse Gallery there was a large re-print of an article from the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly dated some 50 years back.

It was commenting on the opening of the new library and looking forward to the continued development of the town; river bank development, a meaningful town plan and generally worthwhile expansion plans for a better living environment.

The expectations of the people of that time have not happened at all and that is sad. But in the end it comes down to leadership and an ability to get things done.

The local body elections will happen in October and we need to look very carefully as to who we vote for at the top level and the councilors.

We need somebody with experience, vitality, energy, forward thinking, skilled in relationship management and capable of making a fresh start, all sadly lacking at the present time.

In many ways this person needs to be intelligently controversial toward encouraging creative reality thinking; generating expansion in the best possible way and always acting for the common good.

Then and only then will we see and experience living in the Hutt Valley as it should be.

You see to me the Hutt Valley and environs really do matter.