LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS & YOU

Nominations for our Local Government elections will close on Friday 12th August, just as this newspaper comes out to you.

What we know at this point in time, is that Victoria Kaye-Simmons will be “tossing her hat in the ring” for the position of Mayor of the Horowhenua District and that Bernie Wanden and Sam Jennings will also be contenders, although that is yet to be confirmed. A look at the council website shows that currently there are no other council candidates. This of course will change the closer we get to the deadline of the 12th August.

I suppose that the question our older community needs to ask is: “so what?” How will the Local Government elections affect you? Let us not talk about rates, as this is always the red herring come election time. Candidates can talk all they wish about holding rates where they are or lowering rates, but the reality is that the rate take is determined by economic forces and the needs of council and the community. Within the money that council needs to spend there are the “Must Haves” and the “Nice to Have” items. It simply depends on council priorities. Are our seniors a priority when it comes to council’s thinking and council’s spending?

Again, what we do know is that our older community is making up a higher and higher percentage of the age demographic in the Horowhenua. We also know that when it comes to voting, seniors make up a higher percentage of voters than the remainder of the community. More and more age-care villages and senior life-style communities are being built. We need only to look towards Paraparaumu and Waikanae to see the plethora of new build villages for older folk. As seniors sell up and move north out of Wellington, the Horowhenua is now becoming the destination of choice. With the move to a higher seniors population, how can we be assured of a reasonable return on our “rates investment”?

Several years ago the council signed up to the Age Friendly Communities initiative.

It was a programme supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and was designed to support and enhance the lives of older people in our communities. The eight priority areas included in the strategy needed to implement the AFC initiative are: Community Support and Health Services – Housing – Respect and Social Inclusion – Transport – Communication and Information – Civic Participation and Employment – Outdoor Spaces and Buildings & Social Participation.

The question that we now need to ask is: how well is our council doing to meet the strategic goals of the AFC initiatives?

The other question is: do our councillors and prospective councillors know and understand the AFC strategy and what are they going to do to ensure that the previous agreements are worked on and completed?

As a second article, we have included the questions that Grey Power intends to put to both the Mayoral candidates and the Ward Council candidates. All the questions are linked back to the AFC initiatives.

Editors Note: As I was writing this article, I had one of our seniors call in at our house. She had just had a trip/fall accident caused by an uneven footpath. With blood and mud in evidence, a local citizen rushed out to help her. What did not help her was the state of the footpath. Just one of the items in the AFC initiative!

Terry Hemmingsen PRESIDENT