Mayor’s message - Oct 2021

Summer is coming, one of our busiest times in Hastings with events and the warmer days to take advantage of all of our wonderful hospitality offerings.

Of course this year it looks a bit different with the emergence of the Delta COVID variant and the steps we’ve had to take to protect our community.

It’s challenging for everyone, but one of the most important steps we can take to help get life more back to normal is to get double vaccinated.

As a district we are hugely reliant on our essential workers – from our orchard workers to the transport operators to the people in our supermarkets and other businesses.

This means we are in a very vulnerable position should we get an outbreak here, and that could so easily happen.

For our community, our whānau, our health workers, the best protection we can provide each other is to get vaccinated, and we need more of us to do it.

It’s been great to see those people who have been taking up the opportunity so far – last month we joined the Totara Health team at a drive-in vaccination clinic in Flaxmere.

There were lots of whānau there getting their vaccine, and the team had free fruit and vegetables and firewood for those who needed it – a wonderful example of everyone pitching in to look after our community.

The same at our Flaxmere Community Centre, where Nourished for Nil had a record of 312 people through the doors recently – I’m so proud of the fantastic service they provide.

Along with other industries in our community that are facing big challenges with COVID, the arts sector has been hit hard and I encourage you to check out the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival programme of exciting events coming up this month.

The team is working hard to put on this Festival, within any COVID limitations, and we are all keeping our fingers crossed that most of these events can still go ahead.

1 October 2021

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