Tim King

Despite the fact it's a similar distance away from Nelson Airport, have to travel to Nelson in order to make those connections.

So Motowake pretty much pays its own way, doesn't need to be subsidised by the ratepayer.

Takakura is a slightly different situation.

So despite having Golden Bay Air, there's not a huge amount of landings and there's not the other income in relation to leases on the land adjacent to it.

So that costs approximately $100,000 a year to keep the Golden Bay Aerodrome running.

We do have a small ratepayer base for a very large region with an awful lot of things to provide.

But this is one of the challenges for New Zealand in general, but certainly for us, is that ensuring that

these critical bits of infrastructure are available both for day-to-day use, but as I said, as critical lifeline assets in the event of emergency, particularly in a location like Golden Bay with one road in, one road out, and a road that is subject to interruption, and whether that's earthquake and or severe weather events.

So it's a cost that really is pretty high on the priority list to ensure that it's there effectively.

for those situations.

No.

No.

But that is the same with so many assets.

So Port Tarakawi, which is the other critical lifeline in Golden Bay, also over the years has cost the ratepayers to maintain.

And again, it has users, they pay, you know, they pay, it has a marina, they pay.

But over time, there is still a cost to the ratepayers to keep these assets going.

And there's a benefit to

those parts of the region, both day to day, but as I say, most critically, that lifeline civil defence asset can't be underestimated.

No, personally, I don't.

I mean, I think the fact that the government's chosen to provide some support to the airlines that provide those services into regions, I think that is a role that certainly I don't think councils should step into that space.