My principal place of residence is in the Inglewood Community Board area.
I'm standing for ICB as an actively engaged citizen who has advocated tirelessly for many worthy causes. I believe our smaller communities can fulfill their potential in providing safe, active and thriving communities for all people, especially our young people, children and families, if appropriately resourced.
Presently NPDC lacks fair and equitable levels of investment into infrastructure that supports the health, wellbeing, safety and livability of Kohanga Moa ward. We need high quality investment into outdoor recreation spaces, playgrounds and park and the Inglewood CBD, greater advocacy for investment into state highway and road safety for all road users.
We need fair and equitable access to public art, culture and events outside of New Plymouth - particularly with rising living and travel costs. I'm a collaborative, open, creative, frank and honest voice for our community and look forward to working with others to improve outcomes for all of our people.
I support rates rises where the priority of spend lies with the maintenance and upgrade of critical/fundamental infrastructure, and where spending outside of this to support the wellbeing of all of our respective communities is fair and equitable. On the second measure I see room for improvement for smaller and remote communities.
No. The process seems botched and heavily ‘spun’, the proposed structure is dubious and under independent scrutiny of the Ombudsman appears to lack integrity.
NPDC is doing good work in this space in some areas, but appears largely focused on the city. I would like to see work on the interconnectedness of our smaller communities and the range transport options and supporting infrastructure available within smaller communities to have parity with the city. I would like to see a more geographically distributed events calendar also.
The work to support business through covid was commendable. I would like to see investment into communities around placemaking and bringing communities together that also gives business the confidence to invest.
Yes. This question seems redundant given this has already been determined. The establishment of a Maori ward further supports honouring the co-governance intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Oakura and Waitara seem relatively well supported by NPDC, as evidenced by significant multi-million dollar recreational projects pending or being presently undertaken - Waitara has some infrastructural deficiencies around stormwater and street lighting however. Inglewood, Okato and Urenui, ironically being the ‘bookends’ of the district are receiving only basic infrastructure in some cases, but very little maintenance and next to no attention to recreational and transport-related improvements.
The proposed hub is already set to blow the anticipated budget. The council should have no part in funding any overruns, either the scope of work should narrow or the groups benefiting should fundraise accordingly. Our smaller communities rely on little to no council funding to develop infrastructure, instead fundraising ourselves. Any potential for additional council budget should be distributed into smaller community sporting needs, where significant deficits also exist.
Equality across the district. New Plymouths District council is for the entire North Taranaki district - not just the city. We need adherence to the LTP, otherwise it is a pointless exercise. Too many projects come up at a whim and are then pushed through, whilst others in the LTP somehow fall off, as we have seen here in Inglewood. We need our smaller communities having greater autonomy and given proper operational budgets – a devolving of power back to where the local knowledge sits. These are all interrelated factors.
