NIGEL MANDER

First-time council candidate Chris Carson will be well known to many locals.

The retired public servant has served as treasurer of the Upper Hutt Cosmopolitan Club for 11 years.

It’s one of several local organisations which the 66-yearold Totara Park resident has been involved with.

Others include St Joseph’s, Greenstone Doors Charitable Trust, and the Samaritans. Carson is a trustee of Trentham Community House and Upper Hutt Bowls.

A chartered accountant, Carson was chief financial officer for the GCSB and in 2012 was awarded a QSM for services to the state.

Carson publicly battled with the city council last year when the financial future of the Trentham House was under question. ‘‘There was a bit of arm wrangling there,’’ he said. ‘‘One of my election platforms is community services. I think Upper Hutt could have better facilities and better services and I’d work to support and foster them.’’

Carson is also opposed to the council not having kerbside recycling service and would work for its reintroduction.

Howshould council deal with rates rises?

Any rate increase should match or be less than one’s increase in purchasing power and take into consideration inflation also. I personally would resist any annual rate increase more than the annual inflation rate. The council needs to manage its finances within the annual inflation rate and continually look at more cost effectiveways of doing business. Nigel Mander was unflappable when it was put to him he may not be the only clown standing for the city council.

‘‘At least I can claim to be the most experienced,’’ the man perhaps better know as Puzzle the Clown said.

The Silverstream resident was more equivocal about his age. ‘‘I’m cagey about that but I maintain I’m an adult.’’ Mander is a first-time council candidate looking for a strong community vote under the slogan ‘‘a friend you can trust’’.

‘‘Some things are serious, all things should be fun,’’ he said.

A local for more than 25 years, Mander said Upper Hutt had been a good city to call home.

‘‘When I am on the city’s payroll as a councillor, apart from devoting 20 hours a week to council business, I will clown free for Upper Hutt residents,’’ he said.

Mander would also like to see cycling lanes improved in Upper Hutt where the speed limit is over 50kph while in a submission to the council’s Long Term Plan this year he called for street signs to carry historic information about their naming.

Howshould council deal with rates rises?

Rates rises should not run ahead of inflation. Wages usually lag behind the Consumer Price Index. Rates should not take an ever-increasing portion of householders’ incomes. However as central government puts more obligations on local government, and UHCC seeks to enhance the lives of its citizens, local expenditure may need to increase beyond the ideal.