Fr Fenton's gentle admonishment was delivered with a wide grin on his face to gales of laughter from councillors, but there was no mistaking the sincerity of his message regarding the proposed development of town reserves for sports grounds.
He and several other submitters appearing yesterday urged the council to resile from an earlier preference for developing the Wanaka showgrounds and camping ground sites into sports facilities and take up a longer-term option of greenfields development on the outskirts of town.
"There's a vision with the greenfields site, a vision for the future. And if I may refer to the good book, there is a proverb - people without vision are doomed. Here endeth the lesson," Fr Fenton said.
Earlier, he spoke of his concerns the council was not listening to the majority of people regarding the sports grounds issues and queried whether the site selection process had been biased.
He asked the councillors to be sensitive to public opinion regarding not just the greenfields options, but the proposed upgrade of the Wanaka Lakeview Holiday Park.
Jo Dippie said a development on the showgrounds and camp ground would run into traffic and parking problems very quickly.
There were no significant differences in distances and times taken to get from the centre of town to a greenfields site or the camp ground, she said.
If the council decided not to locate a swimming pool close to schools, it would be best co-located with sports facilities at a greenfields site, she said.
Loris King said the showgrounds and camping ground should not be tampered with as they were part of an important green belt circling Wanaka.
"My plea is please listen to the people and don't destroy what we have," Mrs King said.
Stuart and Colleen Landsborough also supported a greenfields site, while Bill Brooker suggested a location not previously evaluated by the council, on a privately-owned former timber mill site on Aubrey Rd.
• The QLDC has received about 300 submissions on the draft annual plan and will next week consider all submissions again before making its final decisions for the 2010-11 year.
The final plan is to be approved by the council at a meeting in Queenstown on June 29.
