TOP STORY: City votes to sell park | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

LAWRENCE GULLERY

Negotiations with retailers who want to be part of Hastings' first large format retail centre will begin next week as the people of the district have said they want Nelson Park sold.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said the negotiations included completing talks with the 20 commercial businesses which had already expressed interest in moving to the planned mega retail site.

An Environment Court hearing, which will decided if a supermarket will be part of the plan, would not hinder negotiations, the Mayor said.

"It just means if there's no supermarket we will have six sites of 1000 square metres for retailers, rather than four," he said.

Mr Yule said he was delighted with the referendum result because it showed a clear majority.

It gave the Hastings District Council not only the green light to sell the 75-year-old park, but funds from the sale will go towards $3 million worth of green spaces and parks around the city.

In addition, the sale means money will be available to move the run-down athletics track at Nelson Park to the regional park planned for Percival Road.

The referendum results were announced yesterday afternoon, recording a convincing victory for the yes vote: 61.91 percent of people voted yes while 37.81 percent voted no. In total 23,986 votes were recorded from a possible 50,140 eligible electors.

There were 543 special votes yet to be processed and a final result would be announced on Monday.

"It's not even close, so that suggests that the people of Hastings are prepared to move on," Mr Yule said.

The Mayor said he understood some people, including those in the Nelson Park Action Group, would be upset about plans for the park to be sold.

"Nelson Park was special to them and they put a lot of effective views forward to persuade people their cause was right," he said.

Former Hastings district councillor Trevor Baker described the Nelson Park referendum result as "disappointing" and admitted there was nothing he or other members of the Nelson Park Action Group could do to stop the park from being sold.

Mr Baker said he was involved several fundraising events for the park's all weather tracks and its grandstand, during his time on the council.

"It is disappointing, especially when you've dedicated your life trying to help this city," , he said.

"I think in the long run they (the council) will regret disposing of Nelson Park just to satisfy The Warehouse."

The former councillor said he didn't think the margin between the yes and no vote would be so great.

"Particularly after the petition we did (to save the park), we got 13,000 signatures ... but that was 18 months ago and people forget and can't be bothered voting.

"There's always a bit of complacency involved with things like this in this city," Mr Baker said.

The action group had no plans to contest the referendum result and would be waiting to hear the outcome of an Environment Court hearing between Foodstuffs and Progressive Enterprises.

The two supermarket giants are battling for the right to operate in the proposed large format retail centre at the park.

Hastings' Jack Tregurtha, president of the Hawke's Bay-Gisborne Athletics Centre, said the referendum result was "pretty much what I expected".

"The challenge for the Hastings (athletics) club will be to survive the move to the new park," he said.

"I can't see too many parents being happy with their children cycling along the express way to the new park. I'm sure there will be other ways to get there but in the interim, I see a problem," he said.

The high turnout of the poll was not necessarily a reflection of how well people understood the implications of selling the park.

"That's (the high poll figures) the call of councillors because it makes them feel a bit more important," he said.

"A lower poll but with more informed people who have thought about they way they were going to vote would have got a better result rather than saying please send in your votes regardless of what you think," Mr Tregurtha said.

Hastings City Marketing's executive will meet on Monday to discuss an action plan as a first step towards preparing for a large format retail centre at Nelson Park.

The group's manager, Sally Jackson, said the plan would later be presented to the council for further discussion.

"We're very happy the referendum has come back with this result; it's good for the city and it means that out city can retain its vitality.

"It means we can now work with large format retailers to make sure there are proper links into the city, it's very exciting," Mrs Jackson said.

If Hastings is to have a large format retail centre, it should be built with the environment in mind.

That's the message for Sustaining Hawke's Bay chairman Kevin Trerise, who said the council, as the developer, had the ability to ensure environmental and sustainable considerations were incorporated in the buildings and carparks.

"Let's hope that state of the art environmental and sustainable design is a feature, that will in some way off set the economic, social and commercial damage this complex will do to our community," Mr Trerise said.

He said the big-box retail centre would be a "unique opportunity" for an exemplar building for the Hawke's Bay region.

"The roofs of the buildings could be large solar photovoltaic panels providing a significant amount of the power that will be required to artificially light the building.

"These buildings could be examples of low wattage lighting and energy efficient heating and ventilation systems," Mr Trerise said.