Questions over West Coast economy plan

The temperature was an estimated 7 degrees at 2am in Westport's main street. Photo: NZ Herald
Westport's main street. Photo: NZ Herald
Questions continue to take the gloss off the $36.8 million West Coast economic action plan, which failed to make any mention of key industries such as fishing, the meatworks and timber mills.

Grey District councillor Allan Gibson has joined a chorus of people uneasy with what was left out of the Government's action plan, which emerged from the 'growth study' last year.

Apart from the $11m committed to setting up a minerals institute, the plan includes $18.5m for two new bridges and is otherwise weighted towards tourism.

Talley's Greymouth manager Jeff Drake recently questioned why fishing did not even rate a mention.

"I don't understand why one of the biggest players on the West Coast - fishing - was not included," Mr Drake said.

Both Talley's and Westfleet were investing heavily to build their businesses in Greymouth and he could not 'fathom' why the economic blueprint for the West Coast economy had not a word about fishing.

The only mention of dairy farming contained in the action plan was the impact it has on waterways.

West Coast Regional Council member Peter Ewen asked last week if the structural review of Development West Coast, also part of the action plan, was a way to tie up DWC funds to subsidise infrastructure costs which should otherwise come from the Government.

Cr Gibson said the Grey District Council was never consulted.

"My concern is there's an awful lot of good businesses here - sawmills, meat plants etc - that employ the bulk of people. They're employing the people now."

The Government had invested a lot of money in the economic feasibility plan which could have gone elsewhere, he said.

Greymouth, the hub of the West Coast, was getting a new hospital and bridge but both would have happened anyway, Cr Gibson said.

"Fishing should have had a lot more support, (and) the mills employ a lot of people."

It was existing businesses that kept the economy going in the wake of the mine closures and mass lay-offs.

Regional council chairman Andrew Robb, who led the project, last week admonished his fellow councillors for "throwing stones" at the action plan.

Cr Robb would only respond to written questions today, and later responded by e-mail that it should be looked at as a complete package.

The initial task was to look at the West Coast and what it offered. This was just over 300 pages and was followed up with a summary report, which condensed this into a smaller document (100-plus pages).

Out of this work the governance group selected some immediate initiatives which were then incorporated into the action plan.

"This provides a blueprint for the next three years and is a mix of options from tourism, ICT, mining and other immediate low hanging fruit to work on," Cr Robb said.

"These initiatives are the ones we have identified as providing real benefit in the short to medium term."

The governance group would identify the next raft of projects to push forward to ensure "we have an economy that builds on its natural strengths, is innovative and diversified, and supports our communities, while treasuring our environment".

One key part of the plan was economic development work for the West Coast.

This would lead to positive changes and enable business like the meat works, fishing, logging and other primary industries to be supported where they had innovative ways to increase economic development in the region.

"For the majority of these industries, the growth study concluded there were no immediate economic gains to be made in these areas."

 - Laura Mills

Add a Comment