response to Jack Fletcher from the Press

Cedric from Grey District

Jack Fletcher from the Press requested that I add my response to him so he could gauge how the community felt ........."The issues in Greymouth are multi faceted. on one side a declining population due to the closure of traditional industries like mining, these Jobs were very well paid and the only light at the end of the tunnel being tourism which is not so well payed. Winz anecdotally are moving people from cities to the likes of Greymouth for cheap accommodation, which has also now resulted in a much higher crime rate. seems like anything will go from murder, home invasion to 'petty theft'. Now consider the 'tourism boon' which is anything but, it is a race to to the bottom and being promoted by our Government such as rather than getting smarter about tourism so people can earn from it, we now have council adding facilities to places near the middle of town so people can come to Greymouth for free. so figure that one out, our own council is not considering the effect that this has on legitimate camp sites. then comes 'air B&B' which again, cutting out the traditional accommodation sector with private facilities which are often non compliant with council requirements for commercial accommodation such as parking, fire safety, emergency egress etc. so not only are we racing toward a low quality economy, we are also racing to a low value economy. People can only see the advantages to the general public, but fail to see the effect it has on our overall economy. now add to the equation, an ageing population with many more pensioners trying to fund rising rates which are some of the most expensive in New Zealand relative to the land values and capital values. Yes we have major problems which affects us all. on the bright side, we have a new hospital currently under construction but has a smaller capacity to the old hospital with many services only available through Christchurch. I hope that gives you something to start with, the future does not look great when a Council is almost out of touch with its rate payers"