Response Letter to the Editor September 2013 - Northern Advocate
With interest I read Tricia’s Cutforth’s stance on the
proposed Hundertwasser Art centre, that is, her pre election promise.
With more information we
should be able to change our minds.
I’m pleased Tricia has read the Deloittes reports which
focuses on the economics of the internal opportunities that arise from building
the Center.
An analyses done by Dr Christoph Schumacher (Massey
University) on the economic impact of a significant attraction such as the
Hundertwasser centre to our city shows even more exciting figures.
He looked at the traffic on SH1, the tourist trips as a % of
this traffic, and the analyses if just 10% of these visitors decided to drive
into our town as a result of the Hundertwasser building.
He halved the average spend of visitors per day and only
calculated for 200 days in the year, so pretty conservative.
The direct output resulted in nearly $7 million a year,
taking into account the value added factors and “Leontief” factor (something
Tricia will be familiar with), we are looking at (conservatively) an $11
million impact to our local economy per annum!
That has to be good news, and regardless of how well we
liked the process that WDC went through, it would be irresponsible to dismiss
this project.
Being in Council is all about balance, currently over 85% OF
OUR Capex budget is on hard infrastructure, 15% on sporting facilities, parks
and other community facilities.
As mentioned before, the cost of Hundertwasser is 0.6% of
our LTP budget. That is not a radical expenditure, particularly taking into
account the economic benefits resulting from this.
Only once other cost contributions have been confirmed will
Council be able to confirm if it is going ahead.
Considering the positive opportunities for jobs, businesses
and community you may well reconsider your stance prior to the election Trish
as I know you too want to move the community forward!
Jeroen Jongejans
WDC Hikurangi/Coastal Ward Councillor
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