Message from the mayor

October was a busy month in Heretaunga Hastings and there will continue to be a lot of activity in the district in the lead-up to Christmas.

On the weekend of October 7, we opened our beautiful Waiaroha Heretaunga Water Discovery Centre in our city.

It was incredible to have so many people in our community come and see this special place, and we would love everyone to visit Waiaroha – you can explore the grounds at any time, the discovery building is open 10am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday, and it’s all free.

After the Havelock North water contamination of 2016, our Council heard our community’s call and made a commitment to upgrade our drinking water network to the highest standard to ensure that our drinking water supply is safe, secure, and sustainable.

The facility at Wairoha, along with the Frimley Park water storage and treatment and upgrades to seven small community water supplies along with other infrastructure improvements will ensure our drinking water supply is protected for current and future generations.

Another highlight last month was opening the newly redeveloped St Leonard’s Park playground. This centrally located space will be very well used, it is now an appealing place to spend time in – it’s even got a handy coffee shop over the road.

Our young people are the future of our district, and it was once again a real pleasure to meet and hand out awards to a group of young people who have been put forward from their community for recognition.

The annual Youth Potential Awards are one way our council acknowledges our young people who are doing really well in their lives, sometimes in challenging circumstances. It was a real pleasure to meet them and find out more about their goals and aspirations.

It’s now coming up nine months since Cyclone Gabrielle, and for our council finalising the Category 3 Voluntary Buy-Out Policy has been a critical step towards providing our most impacted residential property owners with options and a pathway forward – so that they can move on with their lives with some certainty.

We officially opened the buy-out office in Hastings on October 24 so this process could properly get underway for those who wish to explore this option.

We are so proud and grateful to our people who work tirelessly for others – thank you for all you do. One recent example was a wonderful event to support our growers who were hit by the cyclone – our thanks to the Evergreen Foundation and Tumu Timbers who helped make this happen.

Nga mihi

Sandra Hazlehurst

Mayor of Hastings

1 November 2023

Back to Archive