Hamill sole survivor of trust election

Most of the incumbent trustees on the WEL Energy trust have been swept out of office in the trust’s elections.

Voting in the triennial election closed at midday yesterday and the only trustee to survive what proved to be a cull was former Olympic rower Rob Hamill.

Denise Harding, Kathryn Williams, Mike Rolton and Craig Stephen – all members of the Power On block – were all voted out.

Chairman Mark Ingle and another current trustee, Charlotte Isaac, did not stand in this election.

Established by Hamilton, Waipa and Waikato district councils in 1993, the trust owns WEL Networks, which manages the energy infrastructure of 160,000 Waikato residents. The top-polling candidate was former Hamilton mayoral candidate Michael West, with 8638 votes.

He is a member of the Bring Back Discounts group. Three other members of that group, Matt Silverton, Jan Johnston, and Adrian Yamunanathan were also elected onto the trust.

Alan Chew and Geoff Booth were the other successful candidates.

However voter participation in the election was minimal, with preliminary results for returns released yesterday put at 13.17 per cent.

The trust last month incurred the ire of Hamilton East MP David Bennet, after WEL Networks Limited and Waipa¯ Networks Limited sold their shares in UFF Holdings Limited, the holding company for Hamilton-based fibre business Ultrafast Fibre Limited to an overseas company, First State Investments for $854 million.

Bennett said the sale ‘‘squandered’’ an opportunity for the Waikato to become a business leader in the fibre network sector. Because the buyer was from overseas, profits will go that way too.

Hamill was the only trustee to vote against the sale.