The Southland Racing Club is an organisation that itself is traditionally in search of sponsorship opportunities rather than handing out money. There was initially some trepidation from fellow club members when the idea of backing the Stags financially was first raised, Bellew said. However, he said there was no catch to the deal, it was simply a case of Southlanders helping out fellow Southlanders. The Southland Racing Club is in a relatively strong position on the back of various recent commercial investments, he said. It included leasing land to the Blue Duck Early Learning Centre which opened at Ascot Park this year.
The successful candidate will join Alan Dennis, Paddy O’Brien, Suzanne Prentice, Sean Bellew, and Angela Newell at the ILT table. As of Wednesday morning, 7730 votes had been cast from the pool of 32,372 eligible voters, meaning a 23.88 per cent voter turnout to date. It is the second by-election held in Invercargill this year following February’s Invercargill City Council by-election. The council by-election attracted 14,700 votes which was a 36.58 per cent turnout. Those who still want to vote in the ILT by-election will need to drop voting papers off to the council’s office in Esk Street, or at the Invercargill Public Library.
2 March 2021 • 12:01am
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, will deliver the next Budget on Wednesday, March 3
Credit: TOLGA AKMEN /AFP
SIR – In the past seven days, deaths with Covid-19 have fallen by more than 33 per cent, and hospital admissions by more than 21 per cent.
Scientists and politicians will attribute this news to the lockdown and vaccination programme, but a build-up of natural immunity, seasonal factors and new treatments may also have played a role. We don’t know.
However, what we do know is that the economy needs rebooting, and fast. Tomorrow’s Budget may be the most important of our lifetimes. Good luck to Rishi Sunak. His numbers will be equally important.
“To get harness racing back on the map in eastern Southland is very important for the future of the industry,” he said. However, it was not all good news with HRNZ announcing the all-weather harness grit track at Gore is to be closed to racing. It can still be used for training. Harness racing can still go ahead on the Gore Racing Club s grass track.
Stuff
An aerial view of the Wyndham Racecourse. The Gore Harness Racing Club used its race day licence this season for a grass track meeting in December. Gore Club president Ross Cleland said a priority was to keep its training facility operating. He added Gore would be applying for one or two more meetings for use on the grass track or at Wyndham next season.
“One of the ladies who works here said, thank God, I will be able to pay my mortgage off in that four years. The relief on her face was just incredible.” The four years gave him time to adapt and redeploy staff to other areas when the smelter did eventually close, he said. The news was also welcomed by Ryan Harvey, the engineering operations manager of Invercargill based Sheet Metalcraft which does work for the smelter. “It s a great day for Southland,” he said. Harvey said the feeling at his workplace was one of relief. “My wife works [at Tiwai] so it’s a good day for her as well. She s relieved.”