A corner of the city left out
October’s local body elections left Palmerston North’s anchor suburb of Awapuni almost without a live-in councillor. It was the third time the city elected its councillors at large after the ward system imposed in 1989 was abolished, and the majority of councillors have now been elected for their first terms through city-wide voting.
The system has given us some diversity in age and ethnicity, which is good, but not in geographical terms.
Almost to a fault, councillors’ feedback is that it does not matter where they live.
They have all declared they will perform their duties in the best interests of Palmerston North, as awhole.
Back in the day, before the ward system was introduced, Hokowhitu was over-represented in the addresses of councillors.
That was seen as one of the benefits of wards – to give candidates from less affluent suburbs a better chance of success.
At the time, ‘‘less affluent’’ was a sort-of shorthand for Highbury.
After the wards, there was some hangover in the distribution of councillors, as incumbents were almost certain to have the name recognition and track record to be re-elected.
But now, a drift to the west and north of the city is apparent, although ‘‘new’’ Kelvin Grove is temporarily without a resident councillor until Leonie Hapeta moves back there.
The shift has left downstream Awapuni out as the choice of address for any councillors, except Vaughan Dennison, who has moved to the Pioneer Highway boundary of the old ward.
Long-term councillor Adrian Broad, initially elected in Awapuni, stood down at these elections, and Duncan Mccann, who lived there, was not reelected.
Awapuni plays host to a number of city assets – the Esplanade, the Lido, the new He Ara Kotahi bridge and the vital Totara Rd wastewater treatment plant.
Dennison said it would be wrong to assume that as the only current councillor living in Awapuni he would be the sole councillor with a strong interest in those assets.
‘‘It’s been my experience that all councillors take keen interest in assets and projects regardless of where they are located in the city.’’
But it is a claim that businesses and residents around the Awapuni shopping centre on College St, who realised rather late in the piece about plans to remove parking and improve cycleways through the area, might find hard to accept.
It would be hard to dispute that people in Ashhurst see their resident councillor Aleisha Rutherford as their go-to person, or that people concerned about Highbury’s crash corner on Monrad St expect Lorna Johnson to advocate strongly for improvements.
But Rutherford argues the portfolio system covers the city in amuch more relevant way than wards did.
‘‘We are seeing more and more people disengaged from their neighbourhoods and more engaged in interests – schools, sports, cultural groups, hobbies.
‘‘Electedmembers are more accessible than they have ever been via phone, email, social media plus the hundreds of events we attend each year.’’
Cr Rachel Bowen concedes she does keep a particularly interested eye on activities in Turitea, where she has lived for four years, and Terrace End, where she used to live.
‘‘I know I’m not alone in that.’’
But overall it ‘‘isn’t about where I live, it’s about being available’’.
Local body commentator, mayoral contestant and the highest-polling unsuccessful candidate for council Andy Asquith said the ward system was fraught with difficulties.
But he did believe the council could do more to represent geographical communities of interest better.
His answer would be to identify 15 distinct neighbourhoods in the city and appoint a councillor, preferably one who lived as far away as possible, to have particular responsibility for the people in the area.
We believe he did not know the late Brian Booth, a regular attendee at council meetings advocating for local government to put more emphasis on growing strong neighbourhoods.
To some extent, the current city council has done that with rural communities and villages, which has been one of the portfolios.
And the whole portfolio system has recognised there are communities of interest in the city, be it cultural or seniors, youth or employment, that have nothing to do with geographical areas.
Brent Barret said an engaged and competent councillor would serve thewhole city effectively, regardless of their home address.
‘‘Each councillor can and should be held to account by the whole city.
‘‘If locality was a dominant factor for voters, then we should see geographic dispersion of candidates and councillors.’’
That argument depends, somewhat, on something that we cannot know – whether there was an even distribution of voters, as in, people who actually voted, across the city.
If the people of Awapuni did not turn out to vote, the worry would be that they did not believe they could make a difference or felt quite anti-council.
If that is what happened, the idea that apathy indicates contentment is an argument that cannot fly.
The shift has left downstream Awapuni out as the choice of address for any councillors, except Vaughan Dennison.