Meet and greet chances slim for TRC candidates
Voters will have just a single meeting to weigh up the candidates for the Taranaki Regional Council ahead of October’s election.
The opportunity to meet all the candidates is being organised by the Taranaki branch of Federated Farmers and is likely to be in Stratford on September 29, although final details were still being worked through.
In comparison, at least a dozen candidate meetings have been scheduled right across the New Plymouth district, while South Taranaki and Stratford were likely to have at least three, despite most wards in the districts already being filled.
A spokesman for the Taranaki Regional Council said it was not planning on doing anything ahead of the elections, although Meet the Candidates biographies for each of the 23 candidates who are vying for the 10 vacant seats have been released.
Bonita Bigham has been elected unopposed in the Taranaki Māori seat.
Every sitting councillor, bar chairman David MacLeod and deputy chairman Michael Joyce, have put their names forward for another term, although some appear to face stiff competition to regain their seats around the council table.
Two-term councillor Matthew McDonald faces competition for the single seat in the Stratford ward from former South Taranaki mayor Mary Bourke, Taranaki Electricity Trust chairman Alan Jamieson and Taranaki Electricity Trust board member and accountant Andrew Wood.
McDonald’s role as chairman of the regional transport committee could come under scrutiny in the lead-up to the election given the state of Taranaki’s highways through winter.
While unrelated to the work of the committee in lobbying Waka Kotahi, Taranaki’s three mayors – Neil Holdom, Neil Volzke and Phil Nixon, along with Macleod – have written an open letter to Transport Minister Michael Wood about the ‘‘appalling state’’ of the state-owned roads in the region.
Bourke, who served as South Taranaki mayor between 1992 and 2007 and was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for services to local government, said the next three years would be challenging for councils throughout New Zealand as they faced an ongoing erosion of their ability to respond to local needs.
Eleven candidates are vying for five New Plymouth ward seats, including Chris Wilkes who was arrested last week for his part in the Mt Messenger bypass protests.
First-time candidate and veteran New Plymouth lawyer Susan Hughes KC needs to displace the one of five sitting councillors – David Lean, Charlotte Littlewood, Craig Williamson, Tom Cloke and Elvisa Van Der Leden – if she wants to be elected.
‘‘I have the time, energy, skills and experience to commit to the work of the regional council,’’ she said.
‘‘Taranaki is unquestionably a slice of paradise, but there is more to be done to ensure our rivers are clean, pest species eradicated, and assets such as Yarrow Stadium and our regional gardens are promoted to enhance our region.’’
The absence of Macleod and Joyce has opened up the South Taranaki ward with the candidate list headed by veteran councillor Neil Walker, but also featuring dairy farmers Deborah Clough and Donna Cram, activist Urs Signer and Alan Murray, who missed out in 2019 by just 122 votes.
The remaining north ward features councillor and farming advocate Mike Davey, fellow councillor Donald McIntyre and first-time candidate Tama Blackburn.