Dear friends!
When New Year rockets went aloft in the night, we had put behind us a year that was marked by dramatic news from both home and abroad. Stronger than in many years we sensed how unsafe the world really is. Many of the news reports involving unimaginable atrocities committed against innocent people.
The terror exerted of the group IS in Syria and Iraq have an intensity and bestiality unmatched in modern times. People are executed for openly as part of a twisted propaganda war. People are being slaughtered down because of their religious beliefs, such Christians, yezidier and Shiites in Syria and Iraq have experienced. Just before Christmas came in addition message school massacre in Pakistan where more than 140 innocent people, most children, were killed in cold blood. It is almost impossible to comprehend how people can do such a thing against others.
Almost as hard is it to understand that young people from our own country can identify with terror and ideology behind. Yet we know that it happens. NRK could fall report that a young man with ties to our region has gone to Syria to fight on their side IS. Radicalization and violent extremism is about to develop into a serious social problem in Norway. Therefore Haugesund municipality on two occasions this autumn arranged broad dialogue and learning sessions where we have put the phenomenon on the agenda. It is important that we keep the focus up also in 2015.
Radicalization and violent extremism can provide many manifestations and be based on various political and religious ideologies. In our communities, we have previously shown that we have been able to take up the struggle against extremism, as we did in the 1990s when it developed a dangerous neo-Nazi environment here with us. We can and must do it again, and I’m convinced that there are many good forces will collaborate on this. Most important of all is that we all show that we have taken a value choice when we say yes to human dignity and no to violence, hatred and terror.
It’s not only terror that has made us unsafe in the past year has elapsed. For the first time since World War II has a map of Europe has changed as a result of intervention by a State against another when Russia annexed the Crimea from Ukraine. Since the Berlin wall fell 25 years ago we have got to believe that aggression between states belonged to the past in our continent. Balkan wars were civil wars. Now therefore a large country helped themselves with a bit of another large country, and the rhetoric that has been used by the Russian leadership in retrospect, also got the mind to wander back to what we all had hoped was a bygone era.
The war in Syria and Iraq, the cooled relations between Russia and the West and the tragic Ebola epidemic in West Africa are all helping to remind us that we live in an increasingly interconnected world where there is only one answers to the big questions: We must become much better at building a trusting cooperation between the nations. Then we can prevent violence, and then we can get started quickly with relief efforts when we experience epidemics and natural disasters.
It’s easy to experience itself as nearly invulnerable when you live in a small town in a small country far away the worst conflict zones in the world. Therefore, we must constantly remind each other that it is happening elsewhere in the world, has a direct impact on the daily lives also in this city and region.
Autumn 2014 we started getting some very clear indications that nothing grows into heaven. Sharply falling oil prices led to lower earnings for oil companies. They, on their part, reacted by reducing the rate of investment and postpone scheduled maintenance. In our city, it led among other things to the workforce at the region’s largest private workplace, Aibel, is about to be greatly reduced. Over 300 families received the førjulsbeskjeden they certainly had not wanted. Just this human dimension is essential to carry. Reduced employment is usually translated into reduced value creation and lost tax money for the state and municipalities. Behind the millions and billions is still the feeling of insecurity that comes when your job is in danger! We must never forget.
Both the city spring, our region and our region is very vulnerable to changes in the regulatory framework for the petroleum industry. Developments in 2014 have with full shown how important it is to have more legs to stand on. Although it will come new contracts to supply industry, and although oil prices at one time or another will rise again, we must take account of us that there is global consensus that we must get away from carbon society if we are to succeed in solving mankind’s absolute greatest challenge; the climate threat.
Although the petroleum orientated industry struggling uphill, we also have businesses that are experiencing better times than ever. A good example is the tourism industry in the city and region. The decision was made in 2006 to strengthen efforts in Haugesund and Haugalandet as tourism destination, has really given fruits. The industry itself has shown that it is possible to bet, and we’ve got a good and fruitful cooperation between the private and public sectors in the region. In 2014, Coated percentage by the local hotels have been historically strong. Cruise initiative has been an unqualified success. We have had major events that have drawn visitors to the city and region. Sports events like the IronMan and Tour des Fjords helps to create the hustle and bustle of the city for periods that were previously very quiet. They have been there for July the Norwegian Film Festival and Sildajazz for August.
Presidency has decided to launch a pilot project for an even stronger focus on event tourism. With falling oil prices and the exchange rate becomes such a commitment even more interesting and more important than when the decision was taken in autumn. Should we adapt, the municipality must be an active and constructive partner for industry.
In its last meeting before Christmas approved unanimously council the new shareholders agreement The Norwegian Film AS. The agreement is also endorsed by the other two shareholders, Film & amp; Cinema and Rogaland County. The new agreement will provide stable and good framework for the development of the Norwegian Film Festival the next four years. It is extremely important for this city and this region. Experience Haugesund has gained over many years as host to the Norwegian Film Festival will be an important basis for a strengthened focus on event tourism in the coming years. Cannes Film Festival has since it started in 1946 evolved to become the focal point in a year-round event industry in Cannes area. The same is possible to achieve in Haugesund. The expertise and enthusiasm are abundant here with us. It suggests at least the feedback from those who have been here on film festival on IronMan, major championships and national meetings.
Public companies is changing rapidly in Norway. Here with us, we know that during 2015 will learn how devices Haugaland and Sunnhordland Police and Stord / Haugesund will be placed in a new structure. Personally I would be clear that the steady centralization progress under changing political leadership nationally, is worrisome. I do not think the police are better managed if the chief sits in Bergen or Stavanger rather than in Haugesund. Actually came our police considerably better than the larger neighboring districts when a survey on public confidence in the police was published in December. “Big is not always beautiful!”
Yet we must be mentally prepared that it will change. Then we must make the best of it, and then we both ask some clear requirements and be aware of what’s threat. When it comes to police, our region clearly that the current district must be collected whichever neighbor it will be merged with. A county model is the worst that can be selected seen with our eyes.
Stord / Haugesund is in merger negotiations with the University of Stavanger. It is rooted in a democratic way in the college board. Yet I like to contribute with some advice on the roadside. If we do not see the potential downside, it can be difficult to reach the upside.
When Stord / Haugesund was established on 1 January 1994 by the merger of the four previously colleges Stord Teacher Høgskulen, Stord nurse Høgskulen, Haugesund Nurse College and State Security College, it happened as a result of good and thorough strategic work from local politicians from Haugalandet and Sunnhordland. The so-called Hernes Committee had laid the foundation for a large-scale cleanup in the structure of higher education in Norway, and most places were established county comprehensive institutions. Many in Bergen and Stavanger wanted the same for Hordaland and Rogaland, but we got what we wanted, and history has shown that there was a good solution. This we must take with us into the next round of merger negotiations.
The worst that can happen is that it offered some of the same at Stord and Haugesund which one offers in Stavanger. It will after a while cause teacher, kindergarten teacher and nursing education is slowly but surely pulled down to Stavanger when to save resources and think economies of scale. It happens hardly year after a merger, because it will be concerned to show how right this was. But after five or ten years? I think unfortunately the answer is given!
The obvious claim must be that some education will be centralized to Haugesund and Stord. That it is possible to think so, showed Rogaland County when they some years ago collected all certificate directed nautikkutdanning at college level at Karmsund high school in Haugesund. Also at Stord / Haugesund there areas that are much stronger than many would expect of a regional college. They should constitute the core of their own faculties centralized to Haugesund and Stord. Then indeed the vision of Norwegian Maritime University with maritime expertise in far more disciplines than nautical realized in Haugesund as part of a possible future “North Sea University in Haugesund, Stavanger and Stord.” How can we ensure that the great new student residences in Sørhauggata being finished in 2015, helping to draw even more international students to the city for many years to come.
It is not only state sector that is changing. The municipal structure is likely to be heavily modified in coming years. Many would say that it is high time. Today it is exactly 50 years since the last major municipalities form was completed and it fit to congratulate our good neighbors TysvÃ|r and Karmøy with fifty anniversary today!
Nine of the ten member municipalities Haugaland Growth Regionråd is now underway with a pilot project to look at possible changes to the structure of our region. That does not mean that municipalities have entered into any engagement with a view to marriage. Actually, you’re not gone so far as to the first “date” yet! Yet it is a good sign that we can sit around the same table and discuss these questions in a factual and sometimes humorous manner. Most people see that there will be changes, and there are changes that impose themselves on us to provide excellent services to a population where the proportion of economically active will drop sharply while oil revenues will fall.
The internal migration in our country is also helping to produce dramatic changes in society. Let me use two municipalities from Hordaland as an example. Odda municipality had its highest population in 1965. At that time there ca. 10,500 people in the municipality. Now at the end of 2014/2015 estimates SSB that the population for the first time in modern times has fallen below 7,000. The population is thus reduced by a third in half a century. At the other end of the scale we find the municipality of Fjell at Sotra, suburban municipality to Bergen. Mountain had approximately 6,000 inhabitants in 1965. Today the population about 24.400. We are talking about well quadrupling in fifty years!
We see the same pattern across the country. People move from inland to the coast. People residing in and around cities. Cities grow beyond Township boundaries, such has been the case for Haugesund for many years. Haugesund is far greater than the city of Tromsø, although Tromsø municipality’s total population is twice that of Haugesund. We have gradually gained a map that does not fit with the terrain.
When Haugesund municipality well twenty years ago made consultation statement to Christiansen Committee recommendation on new municipal structure in Norway, I said a sentence from city council rostrum that was quoted in Haugesund Avis and that created a lot of fuss in the region ” Haugesund shall not be a fly shit on the map! “. The statement is unfortunately equally relevant today if we and the region sleeping in class when the municipal map should redrawn. Its potential must gather forces and think big together. With a Greater Stavanger in the south with 230,000 inhabitants and an even larger Storbergen in the north, is also Haugesund region have to gather momentum if we are to avoid appearing as a fly shit on Norway map! No questions whether it should sit for a police chief in Tromso, although the town thus in reality less than Haugesund. There are also no question the city’s status as a university.
We, however, have always had challenges when it comes to visibility. The city surrounds located in two counties and municipal size does not reflect the size of the total city area. I think this time we should seize the opportunity and do something with it!
Acting Councillor Steel Alfredsen said some wise words when he gave his farewell speech to the city council in December. One of the things he was most enjoyable with was to have established a good and responsible budget for 2015. I am very agree with him in it. It is no secret that Haugesund has economic challenges, and it is a poor consolation that this is also the situation in many other populous municipalities. It is only we who can lay the foundation for a necessary strengthening of its economy, and it must be done before we can be part of a larger municipality. No one should be able to assert that Haugesund wish municipality merging to gain access to the neighbors savings. New kommunestruktur is not about to solve current problems. New kommunestruktur is about being able to solve the challenges of tomorrow.
Despite limited economic leeway provide Haugesund municipality very good services to their citizens. When the city council has asked the alderman about to start a new review of municipal organization with the aim of saving, the purpose is to ensure sufficient resources for provision of services of high quality. Our services are good, but they can always be even better. Therefore it is important to always focus on change and improvement on the basis of safe values. Then it is also pleasing to be awarded Ethics Prize for 2014. A warm thanks to great employees who have seen that all activities fundamentally value based.
In the last month selected multiple media, including NRK and Haugesund Avis, focusing on child welfare work in Norwegian municipalities. It commands respect. Employees in child care makes every day a fantastic effort the weakest in society, children who are abused or neglected otherwise. In addition, they provide important assistance to parents who do not feel that they master parenting well enough. It is always important to emphasize that child protection work is about much more than to take care of children! They want it to be a low threshold for those who need to contact, and here they have a unified City Council in the back.
Haugesund municipality has been concentrating on the development of child welfare for many years after a performance a few years ago revealed several discrepancies that had to be corrected. We have extremely competent employees who are passionate about their job even though everyday is demanding and the number of children who need help, continues to increase. Haugesund municipality has a resource use in care which is approximately 30% higher than the average for midsize Norwegian municipalities if we look at expenditure per inhabitant 0-17 years. However, I think that’s not we who use too much, but that many other uses too little!
Child Welfare our must also have praise because they are so positive partners for other municipal organizations that deal with children do. It is through systematic and purposeful cooperation between schools, kindergarten, health and child welfare service we can detect problems early enough that kids can get help before the physical and psychological damage is irreversible.
In our moved child welfare services into new facilities with state Bufetat. Proximity is important. However, I hope that one of the most concrete changes that will result from a new municipal structure will be the creation of one large and comprehensive child welfare in the new large municipality.
During 2015 23 new residential homes with supervision of beds be ready for occupation in the new Helsehuset at Hotel Saga. With this, the city will get a new step in “caring stairs” that we have missed long. We have built great care homes in their own or private sector since the 1990s, but these are serviced by the home-services. Of beds supervision on site provide an additional sense of security. Other municipalities have therefore found that the need for institutional space can be tweaked when such offer exists. It will be interesting to follow this development in Haugesund.
Many years ago was an experienced mayor of a small municipality in Ryfylke asked by Stavanger Aftenblad if he could define the term local politics. The answer came quickly and spontaneously: “Local politics is the same as transport policy!”. This mayor can confirm that transport policy in any case is a very important part of a mayor everyday and spring 2015 will therefore be extra busy.
During January is the much talked about east / west report presented. We have already seen preliminary figures based only on small car traffic showing that E134 does very well in comparison with other mountain passes in southern Norway. With what we already know about the road’s importance for freight transport, there is every reason to believe that the results are even clearer when the figures from heavy traffic is counted in. Yet we should not relax and take things for granted when the report is available. It is not only local politics nigh synonymous with transport policy in Norway. Also our 165 premier elected in Parliament know what expectations their local voters to them. It is of course easy for them to nod approvingly to a theoretical consideration that one must prioritize the use of resources on the mountain passes. It is quite another when someone then actually need to be prioritized down!
In 2015 we must could also request that measures are agreed on a sustainable operating model for Haugesund Airport Karmøy ensuring growth and development with extensive international traffic also after 2018. The requirement of an overall region is unalterable, and here expecting we act, both from the management of Avinor and from our elected in Parliament and the Government. The airport has enormous significance for the region’s attractiveness. It is the most important tool we have in efforts to develop tourism as an even larger industry in the region, and it has enormous significance for other industries. With help from benevolent elected we got to both overseas traffic and runway expansion in 2003. There is no reason why the adventure that started then, to continue into a future where both SIDDIS and Bergen have received the mainland against Haugesund!
Towards the end of the 1800s was almost only two commodities that were customs cleared at Haugesund Customs Office. It was herring from Haugesund and copper ore from Visnes. Now, 150 years later, is still marine products and metals important exports of large region around Haugesund. Still we are big on commodities. Still we are dependent on few but large locomotive. Yet we come far in developing a dynamic and multifaceted business based on our natural assumptions. The petro-maritime cluster is world class. Subsea technology developed in the environment Killingøy is unique in the world context. On Risøy equipped Dolwin Beta for converting wind power based on technology from petroleum. The once quiet west village is the place you go to in order to participate in the major international film festival, major international sports events and other experiences. We have a huge potential for further development with an even bigger and busier airport and temp oral road from Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo. It was “the city without surrounds» in 1854 will seriously be the city center about ten to fifteen years, mark whether we want it for yourself!
I’ve said it before from this pulpit, but it does not hurt to repeat it: A city can only succeed if Rural succeed and Rural can only succeed if the city succeeds. Seen live Haugesund and the region between Boknafjord and Bjørnefjorden in an unbreakable symbiosis. The new report from byregionprosjektet we are a part, also shows all too clearly that Haugesund region engine. We have strong expertise in the private and public sector that attracts competent people from home and abroad. People working at HSH, Health Fonna, Aibel and NMD, but they live and pay taxes in the region.
Haugesund shall magnify role as the engine and center for the region. Thus, it is quite natural that the new center plan and the new municipal being processed almost parallel spring. There must be a treatment characterized by the future and optimism, and not by artificial contradictions and pessimism. It will still be possible to combine city center development and housing in swathes valley Helgeland Grounded and Fagerheim. We will rig us for the growth that whatever will accelerate towards the opening of Rogfast and Hordfast.
Dear friends!
We approach end of a period where demokratijubileene have stood in line. In 2012 it was 175 years ago local autonomy was introduced in Norway through Presidency laws. In 2013 we celebrated that it was 100 years ago Norwegian women received universal suffrage. In 2014, we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Constitution. Now in 2015, we are marking the 70 years since Nazism was crushed and Norway regained freedom, peace and democracy back. It is important to highlight these anniversaries, for we can thus not take things for granted. There, as we have said, seen horrific examples of the year which is now behind us! One of the very best ways to mark the fourth consecutive democracy centennial will be meeting up at the polls in September. Young and old, women and men, ethnic Norwegians and immigrants, rich and poor. All we have the same right and duty to be involved in determining who will rule Haugesund municipality and Rogaland County for the next f our years.
As most hopefully though, this has been a New Year speech and not a farewell speech. Yet it is an indisputable fact that it has been my fourteenth and last. When we meet here in a year, there’s a new mayor who is host to a tradition that was instituted by Mayor Ingvald Førre 1 January 1938. So it is in a real city. The people come and go, traditions and institutions remain. Such included continuity and renewal of a larger unit, a device we call our culture, community and our our home. As stated in one of the most beautiful Christmas hymns our “times to come, times shall henrulle, relatives will follow generations time.”
It is with great joy and intense love for this city, I should be allowed to wish all haugesundere and friends of Haugesund a happy new year!
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