No place for egos on council

The Clyde Railway Station seems an appropriate place for outgoing Central Otago District councillor and Vincent Community Board member Clair Higginson to reflect on her past four terms in local government.

About 2004, the community board had a vision to turn the station into a building that could help generate its own income and become part of Clyde’s legacy.

The community got behind the project, drove the process and it is now ‘‘doing the things we wanted it to do’’, Higginson says. The sta- tion epitomises how Higginson ‘‘sees the world’’ and uses as a template of developing ways of thinking to create a more certain future.

‘‘When I say looking for a certain future, I mean, recognising how everything is interlinked - our economy, environment and community - totally weighted together. Those are thing sorts of reasons I stood for the community board and council and the template I have used for being on council.’’

Higginson was elected to the community board in 2004 and council in 2007 having moved to Central Otago in 1996 from Perth.

A big evolution during her time was seeing council and community boards working together across the district, rather than separately in isolation from one another.

‘‘I think that is an important growth step and I see more of that happening.’’

Collaboration has significant positive impact on communities, she says.

‘‘I remember our community board going down to Roxburgh and talking to them about the possibility of a trail from Alexandra to Roxburgh and what that would mean.

‘‘Would it be something we could do, would it help the two communities in any way? Both community boards agreed they needed to work together to get it progressed and jointly applied to the government - the rest is history. Now we look back and say thank God we did that. We could have just as easily said no.’’