Four-term councillor Merrick decides not to stand again
One of New Plymouth’s longestserving councillors has announced he will not be seeking re-election after four terms around the table.
Mike Merrick first stood for New Plymouth District Council in 1998 and stayed for three terms before resigning in 2007. He stood again in 2016 and was again voted in, but he will not stand next year, partly because of his health.
‘‘The people of New Plymouth were very good to me,’’ he said. ‘‘The people kept electing me so I thought, well, they must like me.’’
He said the role can be a balancing act between rate increases and what needs to be done in the community. There were also two sides to being a councillor – the meeting schedule and the constituency role.
‘‘There’s a meeting schedule so you know what’s coming up and what issues you’re fired up about and what you want to have your say on.
‘‘The other side of being a councillor, and perhaps people don’t appreciate it, is that people ring you about things, and it might just be a pothole.’’ But he said he enjoyed being a constituency councillor.
‘‘It can give you that satisfaction and generally you can help the people that ring.’’
Merrick, a former manager of the New Plymouth Foodbank, ex-retirement home manager and retired police sergeant, remembered the struggle to complete projects like the Coastal Walkway and Puke Ariki in earlier terms on the council.
‘‘It’s seared in my memory the difficulties we had with some of those issues, to get them over the line and get them done. I was lucky to be on some brave councils.
‘‘There were councillors who didn’t agree, and that’s fine, but general resistance from within the community who felt that the money that we were spending wasn’t justified and the facilities we already had were sufficient.
‘‘Once people saw them, the opposition just melted away.’’
He said there would be moments when he would miss it – ‘‘probably when I read the front page of the Daily News and get fired up about something happening at council’’ – but as time goes by, he’ll be another spectator.
Former councillor Lynn Bublitz, who was on council for 27 years, said he was sad to hear that Merrick was not standing again.
‘‘He’s always made a positive contribution. He speaks his mind and he researches the topic very well. That researching of topics is crucial for councillors.’’