Westland Mayor aims to meet all communities in six months

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

Kumara will host new Westland mayor Helen Lash tonight, at the first of what is intended to be a round of community meetings across the far-flung district as the new council beds in.

The mayor, with councillor Riley Burden and possibly councillor Jane Neale, will speak at the Kumara Memorial Hall, during a general meeting of the Kumara Residents' Trust at 7.30pm.

By-election candidates for the Northern Ward may also attend.

Lash said they would be seeking some "big picture" expectations including a sense of each community's aspirations and "the top five needs now".

"We need to know because they all factor into our future planning. Importantly, it could ensure a wide focus across the whole district and not solely Hokitika.

"I'm fully aware that each community in Westland is different," she said.

"I would like to see everybody working together... We don't want rift in communities, we want communities working together, otherwise it's a waste of energy."

It would be an opportunity for those who might feel disenfranchised to have a voice.

Lash said she aimed to get around the whole district in her first six months to get a handle on individual communities and to galvanise a programme of action for the new council.

Ensuring transparency and accountability was something she had particularly campaigned for.

It "might'' include looking at township development funding.
"There has to be an expectation that the funding that comes from council for those communities is (spent on) what it is meant to do.

"These are things that have to be addressed but we have to look at them and say, what does the community want?

"As well as putting funding into communities, we need to ensure these matters are tidied up and make sure that they work. These are things that I need to be bought up to notice with. There is quite a bit of this stuff out there that in my mind needs addressing."

Lash acknowledged the council in the past may have enabled certain representative groups to operate with a particular focus and the aim of the meetings was not just to talk to them, but to gauge the wider community, she said.

"It's been allowed down the years. We need to look back at what those committees were originally created for and to do. That's what I'm saying -- what are the needs?"

She would like to see agreements formalised between community associations and the council, "to work with them in the future in a positive direction".

"That involves transparency and communication and better involvement."

Lash said it would particularly benefit the councillors of each ward to be keyed in with their particular constituency.

"I am going to be going around with the respective councillors. I want to touch base with them all, I want to talk to them all about their expectations of council, as in the council business and services provided to the community."

* Public interest journalism funded through NZ On Air