Local City Councils In Cash Crisis
Not so much Upper Hutt and Porirua, but Wellington and Lower Hutt city councils are in a debt and improvements bind.
Wellington is in such a bad state with earthquake strengthening structures uncompleted and hugely costly, water and sewerage pipes disintegrating into dust, working from home killing the CBD and trying to preserve/resurrect buildings that have had their day in a historical-histrionics fervour while pursuing costly flavour-of-the-day cycle lanes, and the flailing of LGWM.
Lower Hutt, a place I also know well, has not a lot going for it apart from Queensgate; Jackson Street retail and hospitality; fresh, cold, untainted spring water for those with water containers. But LH is facing a 20% rise in rates and there is no end game to this. The Melling interchange and rail realignment will be a big blow out of costs for sure.
By comparison, Upper Hutt is almost trucking along and at least has a number of features that set it apart from its regional neighbours - Lower Hutt, Porirua, Kapiti and the Wairarapa.
We're talking new year resolutions...
Tidying the house before going to bed each night, meditating upon waking or taking the stairs at work.
What’s something quick, or easy, that you started doing that made a major positive change in your life?
GOODBYE THE POST - NOT QUITE.
Finally joined the large throng of former The Evening Post, The Dominion and DomPost home and office delivery subscribers and cut out a delivered newspaper. Well almost.
This follows in the footsteps of the Upper Hutt Leader being scrapped from weekly delivery.
Now I am among those who receive a digital copy of The Post on a computer and smart phone and a delivered Saturday- only copy of the same. The savings in costs is close to $800 per year. But that is not the real reason for my cancelling delivery.
The delivery wrapped-up newspaper (which can occur as early as 11pm) was being thrown either onto the driveway and skidding onto flowers lining the driveway or direct hits onto the sunflowers.
The Post has become a shell of a major capital city daily newspaper. It is almost not and local regional news - especially sport - is usually non existent.
The name is not good. Google The Post and you get a host of NZ Post sites which are entirely unrelated. The Post is a featureless name. The Dominion (or The Dom for short) had character as a name and a history as a newspaper in Wellington.
Just a thought: The Harvey Norman News Bulletin sounds relevant.
The Evening Post at its zenith and even with the competition of the morning paper (The Dominion) was NZs best selling newspaper with a relative huge home delivered demand.
But where I have lived for the past 4 years or so, I may have been the sole resident receiving The Post in a radius of 300 metres of housing north, south, east and west.