Northland is a great place to work, rest and stay.  At least that’s what I believe.

It’s always good to be in the winterless north.  You can swim (if you’re brave), surf, compete in the various marathons and half marathons, and all the winter sports are abuzz on weekdays and weekends. In fact, one look at the Kensington sports ground on Saturday is quite intimidating. There is a lot of sporting talent in our region. We have strong traditions of producing excellent hockey, rugby and netball players. We do creativity, too. The Bernina Northland Fashion Awards will return in August, bringing out creative flair and sophistication. In August there’s the Womens Lifestyle Expo. We’ve had some recent motorsport, the Warriors visited and next year we have the British & Irish Lions taking on the All Blacks right here in Whangarei plus the ITM cup kicks off this coming August.

Do we want Northland and Whangarei to be the place where things happen? Of course we do. So what’s holding us back?  Accommodation maybe? Flights into and out of Whangarei? A poor Air NZ service from Kerikeri’s airport? Or maybe it is the one road in and out?

For Northland to go the next step forward we need more beds. More than 12,000 square metres of council land across from the Town Basin, on Riverside Drive, was sold to a private company in the hopes of building a high-class hotel but two years on, there are still no concrete plans to develop the site. It’s the same for a Dent St site across the water. So what’s holding them back?  Could it be the Council?

We can’t have people failing to hold each other up. It’s obvious that excitement and passion for bringing visitors to Whangarei requires investors who have some guts. But it’s not just guts that gets things going. We need a council that’s prepared to allow developments to happen.

The Northern Advocate reported last year that Fifa unfortunately had expressed concerns at Whangarei's lack of four or five-star hotel accommodation when it was evaluating Whangarei’s bid to host the Fifa Under-20 World Cup. WDC consulted the public then changed the designation of land around 10 Dent Street but no developer began developing anything.

Both my wife and I personally want to see Whangarei and Northland grow, I know most of you out there do to.  So let’s put some people on the council together who have the guts and determination to support the developing community, so we can have Fashion awards that WOW everyone, so we can have international sporting codes that get the district’s heart beating and so we can bring shows that make everyone laugh… with proper hotels to accommodate the people who come to see these things.

It’s time for Northland’s future to unfold. Are you ready?