THROUGH your column I would like to have the names published of the yays and nays, plus the cost of the contract to market Whakatane District Council’s Piripai block being awarded to an out of towner.
We have already had the disaster of the Aquatic Centre rebuild that went to a Gisborne company, and the parks and reserves contract going to Christchurch and then having to come back with the costs involved in setting it up here again, and now we are doing it again with this contract.
So I put my support behind our local real estate agents in being gobsmacked that money that could filter back into our community is now going to be spent in another town, when our local firms, who are a lot more sensitive to our iwi needs on this project, could have done it just as well as an out of towner.
Bev