Council to whine for lax industry.

Hard on the heels of yesterdays report of a meeting in Council today to vote on a proposal to levy the viticulture industry for environmental vandalism (an observant reader will note that these are my words not theirs) comes news that the Council have bravely backed out of making any decision and instead have put of any decision till next year.
I mean after all, this is an election year right?
And should I be suspicious about the Councillors meeting at the Vintners Retreat on Monday to go over the meeting points?
I mean, they certainly wouldn't have been pre-deciding any issues out of the public eye would they?
I'm sure that it must be very difficult to find a room that will hold 18 people at the Council Building.
This is an election year people. If you think that rate payers are interested in excuses for why you decided to shell out their hard earned money for you to have an afternoon at a retreat. Think again.
They want to see responsible use of their money.
They want to see accountability for decisions.
They want to see if you're a politician or someone that actually gives a damn about something other than themselves.
This will mean that you'll have to be seen to do something.
This will mean that you have to take a position
This will mean that you should be doing the right thing.

Good luck

Council to tax wine industry?

Really?
(See here for the Marlborough Express article and here for the agenda at the Council)
What have they done wrong lately?
Actually, this might sound a bit facetious, but I disagree with this in a number of ways.

Firstly, why should decent, responsible vineyard owners be burdened with the fallout from the irresponsible polluters who should be the targets here? I don't see why the owner of a vineyard that is not keeping their neighbors awake or spraying them with chemicals should have to pay for the poor planning and rat-bag actions of those who could care less.
Secondly, Mayor Sowman is right, $5 per hectare is not a huge sum. Frankly it's insignificant. Considering that there is an anticipated return of many thousands per hectare and a frost fan owner is willing to spend $50,000 on a machine to protect approximately 6-8 hectares. Tax the machines and leave the sensible growers alone. $100 per machine should see you right.

And what's with the "He said", "They said" between the Council and the NZ Winegrowers? For crying out loud, it just demonstrates that the poor communication skills on both sides are unlikely to ever result in an equitable arrangement and the innocent public will be the ones wide awake in the middle of the night.

This is an election year, I thought there would be more constructive effort put in.

Getting out while the getting's bad

In an article published last Wednesday (27 January 2010) in Blenheim's Sun newspaper, the dire state of the local wine industry was described by a grape grower.
One cannot help but feel sorry for those who have invested so much especially if they were the unwitting victims of operators who traditionally skim profits from these type of boom / bust ventures.
The larger established vineyards will endure and those who planned for good times and bad will survive. However those who borrowed deeply and were anticipating grapes to fruit gold will be hurting.
Either way, lets not forget. If you're going to be walking away from the property, take your fans with you if you're close to housing on another property. I'm sure there's a good market for second hand units.