My principal place of residence is in the Kaitake Community Board area.
I have lived in Oakura for over 40 years. I am married to Kathy and have four children who all attended Oakura School. Back in those days I was on the School Committee and then a member of the inaugural Board of Trustees. All our children are married, live in the NPDC area and we have 10 grandchildren.
I semi-retired last year after almost 50 years in agricultural research. I currently have a part time job in this area. I am a lifetime and founding member of the Oakura Boardriders Club, and at various times held the role of secretary, treasurer and president.
I enjoy family time, fishing, gardening, walking and spend a few hours every other month checking a trap line for the Kaitake ranges Conservation Trust. Following the recent sale of our small farm up Wairau Rd we are currently building our retirement home in Oakura.
No I don’t believe rate rises should regularly be this high. Consistent increases of 6% is putting too much pressure on people with low and fixed incomes. Council spending should be prioritised on essential infrastructure. Other spending should be restrained to keep rate rises down.
No. I don’t think the four large entities proposed would be as responsive or efficient as the current local government management system. Also these four new entities taking over our capital assets is not reasonable or rational.
The current Emissions Reduction plan is a comprehensive document with some difficult objectives. At this stage NPDC doesn’t need to be looking to exceed these goals. The LED street lighting was a great start. Current battery powered electric cars are not sustainable in the long term.
An area where I will need to do some research and learning as I do not know what NPDC currently does to support businesses.
NPDC has already made a decision on this and we need to carry on and see how effective this will be to address Maori concerns. I don’t see what the point is to continue further debate on this issue. Let’s get on with it.
If there are differences already between how NPDC supports these towns versus New Plymouth then this is inequitable. However I do not know what differences already exist so I first need to understand what these are.
If exceeding $40million means an increase over the current proposed 6% rate rise then Yes it should be capped
I have no personal projects or agendas I would like to be adopted. I need to learn and understand the issues that affect the Kaitake area and make the best decisions for our community.
