My principal place of residence is in the New Plymouth District Council area.
I am also standing for the Kaitake-Ngāmotu General Ward.
I've proudly earnt the reputation of saying what needs to be said.
Being a financial adviser for over 22 years, as well as your elected council representative for nine years, has made me very aware that many families in our district are struggling with the rising cost of living. The reality is that our current rate rises are not sustainable. This needs to be urgently addressed for the sake of all future ratepayers. This will be my main focus if I become Mayor. A change in leadership is needed now to regain control over excessive council spending and rate rises.
And its important to know that I am a pragmatic person who takes an innovative approach to come up with ideas that can really make a difference in our community.
Feel free to contact me on 021936837 to find out more on how I think and what I stand for.
No. Based on our current Long-term Plan, your rates will have doubled by 2030. The reality is that average household rate rises have always being more than initially predicted. In 2015 it was predicted that rate rises in 2021 would only be 2%. That increased to 12.5%.
No. 3waters is more about who controls our water rather than improving the quality of it. Many other candidates do not want 3waters in its current form, preferring a local approach. However, they still want the reforms to be a controlled by a co-governance, race-based control model, which I disagree with.
Yes. As long as initiatives actually work and don't blow council's budget. One way is by improving how we deal with our waste. Addressing climate change can be a costly exercise. Not all initiatives have an impact that actually makes a difference, I don't support adding costs with no real gain.
Yes. I say yes, but not by financially assisting individual businesses. What we can do is break down the walls to make it easier for businesses, developers and entrepreneurs to work with us to get much better positive results. It should be a lot easier than what it currently is.
No. This decision was mandated. We were not allowed to hold a referendum to find out what the people of the New Plymouth District wanted. The first step should have been asking if ratepayers wanted a Māori ward, but they were not given the opportunity. We are now all one people.
We need to have regular public hall meetings in these areas run by community board members and attended each time for at least 3 different out of area councillors. These communities are important, and they need to be fully heard and more importantly their issues need to be actioned.
I believe the $40m budgeted for this project will not be enough. If this is the case, funding will have to be sourced from another project that we may have to sacrifice. We may not be able to afford everything on our wish list in the current financial climate.
We need to change the thinking around the council table. We are not being as transparent as we should on council costs. If we want to regain the community's confidence in the council then the spin has to stop. We can start by being more upfront on our growing costs.
