19 November 2008

Mataura Fights Back

Some time back I wrote a post Shame on You Dr Jack Phillips!! Give Us Back Our Town!! about how my home town, Mataura is being held to ransom by a foreign investor who is letting our main street fall into disrepair and stifling our community.

Today I spent the afternoon with Campbell Live's Natasha Utting doing a piece for national television on the difficulties Mataura is facing. It is such an exciting development and it has spurred Dr Phillips on to great things. Since Natasha contacted him last week to organise an interview he has had his staff out in full force sprucing up the town.

The broken window panes on the movie theatre have been repaired finally - after being broken for months. Buildings on the main street were being painted as we filmed today. We even saw workers tending to the interior of one building.

And the story hasn't even aired yet!

Here's hoping that this is just the nudge Dr Phillips needed to remember that with his rights as a property owner - and the major property owner in our town - come some responsibilities to the community. Hopefully now he will start some kind of dialogue with the Mataura Community to form a realistic, fair and community centred vision for Mataura that will benefit all parties involved!


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