LEADER COLUMN FEBRUARY 2012

Several recent articles in national newspapers have once again highlighted the opportunities that could exist for Whangarei because of its location in close proximity to New Zealand’s largest city. Obviously there is potential for our deepwater port to benefit in the future as Port of Auckland meets its capacity, struggles with reverse sensitivity and considers whether storing several hundred thousand containers is the best possible use for a world class city. But it is more likely that it will be issues around quality of life and the challenges of living in a large metropolitan centre that may make Northland attractive alternative to Aucklanders in the near future. While not wanting to view Whangarei through rose coloured glasses and recognising that we still have a number of issues that need to be resolved, we do have a lot to offer those disaffected with living in an overcrowded city with an infrastructure stretched to near capacity. Two factors that could potentially affect the quality of life of people living in such a large city are pressure on housing supply and traffic congestion. Neither of these is easy to overcome and both can lead people to question what they are doing there. So we need to ask what would encourage these people to move here and contribute to our economy and our communities. It should go without saying that these people would seek a reliable and resilient way to ship their goods elsewhere around the country and world. They would want surety around power and water supply. But these are things that people in all communities aspire to have and are hardly a point of difference in a competitive market. If someone’s motive for moving from one place is related to their perceived quality of life in that location then this factor will be important to them when deciding on where they go. We have a relatively compact, walkable central business district, we have large areas of industrial land in close proximity to State Highway One and a deepwater port and we have a variety of wonderful residential areas that suit a range of lifestyle choices. There is possibly some negative outside perceptions about Whangarei and possibly the lack of amenity to encourage inner-city living. This is why the work that the Whangarei District Council is doing in the place making projects and their “Love It Here” campaign are so important. There is opportunity for the community to participate and contribute to this work and ensure we can fulfil our district’s potential.