HB Today calls it: “Bus stop chaos in Napier”.
Barbara Arnott calls it: “A tough nut to crack”.
Apparently MUCH too tough to crack for a four-term mayor and a decades-serving chief executive — both long in the tooth — backed by twelve somnambulant councillors.
None of these Napier braintrusters can find a suitable place, properly equipped with amenities, for inter-city bus passengers to use.
Too tough to crack? Ridiculous. It’s clearly way beyond their pay grade. God forbid Napier was confronted with a genuinely complex challenge.
Oh, I forgot. According to Napier Council folklore, local bodies don’t deal with big picture stuff anyway … things like economic development, social well-being of a poor, struggling population, or even getting beach protection right. We shouldn’t expect too much of them … especially when it comes to buses (consider their $1 million Deco imports).
Here’s why the mayor and Napier Council aren’t getting the bus stop problem out of reverse gear … they dismiss bus travelers as low-life. Simply not a priority.
Bus travelers are not up-market cruise ship passengers; nor do they live on Napier hills with views. Those are the constituency to which the NCC royal court responds.
Instead, bus travelers are mostly everyday people for whom bus travel is the only affordable alternative. The Council could care less about these folks.
As Bruce Bisset would say, that’s the right of it.
Tom Belford
Love it Tom and right on the nail!
Why can’t/won’t/troubled by a site in a reasonable part of the inner city? The rail link from Napier to Gisborne is considered important (as it is) then why not support another form of efficient transportation?
Sadly I think you’re right about not wanting ‘them’s that need to bus travel’ to be welcomed into the city.
But surely such a transport hub could accommidate travel coaches, mobile home stop offs, combined with a home for Napier Taxis and the Council’s own Art Deco transportation platforms :)
But, perhaps such an opportunity is a tad too hard…….
What an abusive comment Tom! What the region needs is facts, analysis of those facts and workable solutions. Mayor Arnott has outlined some of the problems in regard to siting of a bus terminal recently. If you have some suggestions to overcome those problems, let us all see them. With your attitude it is difficult to see how the various communities in HB will ever be able to work together.
Chaos at the bus stop prevails. No shelter, no WC, no information. No idea NCC.
Well said Tom. Mayor Arnott and her hugely compliant, boot licking councillors (who are no doubt being led by the nose by CEO Taylor ) are patently more than happy to “gamble a massive 3 million dollars” of iratepayers hard earned money on some yet to be “seen” former -stuffed up supposedly being touched up in Tauranga) Yellow American school busses – mocked up in Art Deco style. To cater for the select Arty Deco ites to take rides along the Marine Parade and over the Hill to Ahuriri to where two sitting councillors own “watering holes”! Lucky for some! Not to mention the Mayor’s pet 20 million dollar museum upgrade.
All this, yet Mayor Barbara (who’s been at least 16 years on NCC) and HER councillors and her CEO who’s been in the employ of NCC 30 years +! Point blank refuse to provide some very “basic ameneties”, likes of toilets and shelter for our many, many busing visitors. An absolute disgrace if ever thre was!! Even Wairoa has toilets!!
A classic case of: “familiarity breeds contempt”. Put stop to cronism and sweeetherat deals ……corruption. Roll on the amalgamation of our locl councils and our local body elections. Time for a change. New blood. Make what Napier used to be -the Holiday Mecca of New Zealand!
My family are regular users of the Intercity bus service and I agree the facilities in Napier leave a lot to be desired.
The logical solution to me would be down one side of Clive Square, even if we do loose some car parks. What a magical portal into Napier this would be. It’s a fantastic space which to my mind is under utilised.
If the council builds the facilities then all they need to do is lease them back to the bus companies by charging ‘parking’ fees in much the same way as the airport charges landing fees.
Therefore the facilities would get built at very little cost to the rate payer, and unlike the dam wouldn’t need substantial central government support.