My principal place of residence is in the District-Wide Councillor area. I am also standing for the Waitara Community Board.
Let's get to Work! - Councillors need to work for the people, they need to focus on core business for our rate payers. I am proud to live in New Plymouth. This is my vision that we - together make it our home for all people to enjoy. To make New Plymouth affordable for all of us.
As a financial adviser I come with experience in local government and on community groups and boards. We need to develop a sustainable vision for driving aspiration and hope for future generations.
I see a need for everyone to have a place for themselves to enjoy, parks open with activities, a CBD that isn't dull and drab. The need for businesses to be given an opportunity to regain pride in their business to have greater success.
Key points for Council are infrastructure, a vision of leadership, consultation, and retention of assets.
No. Any increase in rates should reflect only the supply of service that meets the needs of the rate payer. Increasing rates to justify a spend-up for councillor/Mayor monuments are not justifiable. Council should supply infrastructure, parks, well run CBDs, parking, library, places for people to enjoy that lead to vibrancy.
No. We own the infrastructure now. Giving it away for pennies on the dollar does not make sense. New Plymouth once supplied world class water and had a world renowned sewage treatment. Central government will only provide a service equal to the lowest common denominator. Waka Kotahi is an example of bad supply of central service. We keep what we own.
No. Humanity cannot stop what the weather does. You can’t blow into the wind to stop the wind blowing. What we can do is better manage our refuse to protect our environment. We need to stop all single-use plastic. We need to protect our rivers, oceans, our land to keep it clean and beautiful.
Yes. Our CBD is looking tired, dirty and vagrant. Council has not helped but contributed to this. Business owners need to be encouraged to take pride in the services they offer. Council can help as a major business in the CBD.
I support all people having a say. Can a Maori ward be that process? I don’t know. What I do know is it is up to Maori to decide and make it work, not me. However, I will provide my time to see that it does, and every other person or people group that need to be heard.
Council need to consider the whole community, not just the city. Building places in the city for large gathering spaces will only congest the city further. Already areas of Merrilands, Coronation and Westown are congested. Instead creating sports stadium and the like should be built out of the city. This will give better access to smaller communities.
I heard that this has been blown out to already $140 million. We don’t need to spend this amount of money that will only meet the needs of a small group of sports. Most sports still need to fund their own and yet now will also fund out of their rates a sport that they don’t participate in.
Water’s infrastructure. Council of the past has let this go into a sad state of disrepair. Many parts of our communities suffer from floodin sewage into waterways etc. No more personal monuments to elected representatives. Promotion of good, healthy communities.
