Huge Savings for Hawke’s Bay
June 9, 2010
The announcement today by Minister for the Environment, Nick Smith, will save Hawke’s Bay millions of dollars say local MP’s Craig Foss and Chris Tremain.
“Chris and I have worked very hard with the Minister for the Environment to make sure the Bays special circumstances were taken account of ” says Craig Foss.
“The announcement to extend the period by which Napier and Hastings must comply with the National Air Quality Standards to 2018 will save Hawke’s Bay tens of millions over what was initially proposed ” says Chris Tremain.
Under the initial proposal Napier and Hastings were going to have to comply by 2012. This timeframe would have forced thousands of Hawke’s Bay home owners to change their current fireplace to meet the standard. Under the new proposal Napier is likely to meet the standard by only requiring new builds and sales of existing homes to comply.
“This would have been a huge cost imposition on Napier and Hastings rates payers” says Craig Foss. “Given the potential costs to Hawke’s Bay people this was something we really needed to go to bat for. It’s great to see such a positive result”.
“Given the recession both Craig and I were concerned about this large cost to Hawke’s Bay families and businesses” says Chris Tremain.” “With the combination of the Government Insulation package, the Clean Heat Package, and the positive result of this Air Quality Decision we will get a win for the environment without massive cost increases”.
