Youth urged to reach out for help

I am a member of Stop Youth Suicide South Waikato. I would like to send a message to all of you out there in the community.

Times are going to be hard with Carter Holt Harvey laying off workers, which means it will be a stink Christmas for a lot of families.

Kids, your parents will be finding it hard as well; you might not get what you want for Christmas.

All I ask everyone is please let’s make this a suicide-free Christmas and New Year.

It you are feeling down and you need help look up the SYS website and you will find different people or groups who can help you. Do not think that just because it is Christmas they will be on holiday, they will not be. Please reach out and find help if needed. You are not alone even though at times it may feel like it. Remember once you take your life that for those of us who are left our pain goes on and sometimes gets bigger. Remember kia kaha .

Les Pinkerton Stop Youth Suicide South

Waikato what council legally had to do, maybe the storm wouldn’t have happened.

With the sad demise of Cr Herlihy, the council unanimously (Cr Corban included) decided not to appoint anyone to replace him. We were told at that time, the remainder in the pool had to be distributed among other councillors (not the mayor).

Mr Smit did the calculations ready for the Remuneration Authority, the legal body that determines councillors’ salaries.

It was not what councillors wanted; we would much prefer to still have Barrie with us.

At the next meeting Cr Corban made her grand stand. She declined to have it given to a charity of her choice. Where it would go she didn’t say.

Maybe because of the extra workload the other councillors would have to do to take up Barrie’s work load she wanted it to go to them?

To double check, Mr Smit contacted Remuneration Authority deputy chairwoman Angela Foulkes and the reply was, ‘‘all councillors will be required to accept the increase. The councillor who wishes to decline the increase cannot legally do so. The councillor would obviously have the right to donate the increase (after tax) either to the local authority or to a charity of their personal choosing’’.

Barrie was a hard-working councillor who attended nearly all the 30-odd workshops, committee meetings, waste management task force meetings and council meetings as Cr Corban, a councillor of eight years well knows. The Barrie I knew would cringe if he knew the crass nature of the talk about money.

Cr Corban makes play about lunch and not socialising with other councillors.

Lunch with staff, meeting as a group with senior staff for Christmas, having a glass of wine together after the meetings are all part of developing a team culture. Unfortunately the odd person doesn’t want to be part of a team; a team that has done so much in the past eight years and has so much more to deliver in the next few months.

Cr Corban, the invitation is still open for you to come and see the Sport and Events Centre. While you may not be, the rest of us are proud of what has been built on the park with help from councillors, council staff, dedicated community people on the committees over the years and a vast number of other contributors.

The RAL contract case is still before the court and hopefully we will win the case but councillors have already put processes in place so that this sort of thing never happens again.

You are right Mr Edmeades, councillors must look at the tendering process and look at both the composition and competence of the tender’s board in dealing with technical tenders.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and we can look forward to an exciting, if challenging New Year.

Neil Sinclair South Waikato District Mayor