Ever since I was elected to the Waimakariri District Council in its first elections, in 1989, I have regarded myself as a Waimakariri councillor not a Rangiora one (I had six years off in 2001-07).
As far as I am concerned, wards are a means of achieving a geographical spread of councillors. Once elected, however, we are sworn in as Waimakariri councillors and we have to make decisions for the whole District.
One of the challenges has always been to be seen to be “doing” things for the entire District. It is common for people to say that all the money gets spent in one part of the District rather than others.
This is exacerbated by the fact that a large part of the District sees Rangiora as its service centre – shopping, professional services, secondary schooling, etc. A consequence of this is that there is often a demand for improved facilities in Rangiora.
My own view is that there are some facilities that should be available in various parts of the District. As Woodend and Pegasus grow towards something like their projected combined population of about 10,000, there should be a library facility somewhere there. We should be looking into the possibility of adding a leisure pool to the Kaiapoi Aquatic Centre, just as Dudley Park has.
We can also be looking at the complementarity of facilities, so that what is found in one part of the District can be complemented by what is found in another part. You wouldn’t, for instance, want to replicate the Rangiora Town Hall in Kaiapoi, but a different, more flexible, kind of performance venue could be considered.
None of this has to happen this year or the next. But we should be looking forward to the kind of facilities that a District with a population of 60,000+ (currently 46,000) will need.
The important things is that when we put a facility into one part of the District, it needs to be seen as being there for the whole District.
Tags: Community, Elections 2010, Local Government, Politics, Waimakariri District Council
