Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

Lifestyle is a word that means many different things to many different people. Whatever it is, Priority One has identified our lifestyle as the most significant reason for Katikati being recognised as a town that is successful in supporting business innovation.

That is strange – because there is no support organisation in place. It is just the supportive local people. The Ministry of Science and Innovation wants to bottle it and pass it on to other towns. We better find out what it is before someone starts planning to organise our community spirit.

The report, ‘Coincidence or necessity, A study of innovation in New Zealand' analysed the success of five businesses in Katikati and through the report, was looking for a recipe. I am not sure it was much help in defining a model for them. It does offer Katikati a good insight into how we can progress economic growth in our town and the Northern Harbour district.

Lifestylers. Who are they?

Many of our 16-30 year olds disappear to training and follow their careers out of town. They return later, often as highly skilled and experienced professionals for the lifestyle and to an environment they know is conducive to start up their small businesses. Lifestyle blocks were described initially in the real estate advertisements as ‘Home and Income'. These properties were not seen as retirement options for the rich, but as places where these older, successful people with money could base their new business ventures.

Unfortunately, because initially their ventures appear small and insignificant, the council has never recognised these businesses as worthwhile and has opposed their plans – believing these entrepreneurs to be wasteful of resources and a threat to the local economy. These people socialise and the report identifies the effective informal networking that could only happen in such a community. It is the first report that actually seems interested in people in a town, how they work together and how they support each other.

Lifestylers – a dirty word for council

Lifestylers has unfortunately been central to many of the arguments over WBOP District Council planning for years. Mr Martelli from WBOPDC frequently blames the unwise spread of lifestyle blocks in the Bay for threatening versatile soils and overloading infrastructure. He reports on disputes with lifestylers who demand impossible and expensive services from council and who complain to the council about the noise and smell coming from adjacent farms.

Servicing lifestylers' needs is the single biggest market for businesses in Katikati, but council is doing its best to restrict the lifestyles in Katikati. The Omokoroa development and the Minden Lifestyle Zone is an attempt by council to capture lifestyles from Katikati. If this social engineering is successful, it will alter the economic base of the town and we could lose the significant strength of the people in the town which is highlighted in the report.

Can council change?

WBOPDC has not studied small town business development. The Economic Forum proposed in 2000 was ignored. Smart Growth hasn't attempted any study of small towns. Regional council, with its new Bay of Connections economic initiative, is not looking at small towns at all.

Priority One has done this research and it appears that the other council's and authorities in the Bay may have been caught napping – with no planning to follow up on this Ministry of Science and Innovation initiative.

The report's conclusion outlines the difficulties for entrepreneurs caused by council regulations and compliance costs. The study only looked at the successful businessmen who were coping with the problems but had nothing to say about the many others who have had to abandon their businesses unable to pay the council's compliance costs and demands. A saying in town is that it is usually only the third owner of a business who makes any money.

What next?

The report analysed five businesses. More than four hundred Katikati businesses are listed in the Katch Katikati database and a large proportion of them are outside the town. They are all part of our lifestyle. Priority One has identified the Katikati lifestyle as a key element for progress. All we need to do is work with that, continue to define the economic base of our town and start planning together for the development of the Northern Harbour sub region. We might find that we will need an innovation centre and broadband before we need a library. Who knows? Will council want to hear?