About 40 Raglan residents turned out yesterday to the Town Hall ‘Meet the Candidates’ session so they could meet the candidates and weigh up their points of view. Peter Storey hosted the meeting putting selected questions to the candidates. Raglan Ward Councillor candidates Clint Baddeley and Alan Vink were up front to answer the questions.
Clint promised more the of the same pointing to a long list of projects that he had brought to fruition. Alan promised a fresh perspective and announced that he fully supported, in principle, the Rangitahi Peninsula subdivision project. Clint said the market would decide what happened. And when asked about a quarter hourly bus service to Hamilton Alan said he supported that.
Although there will be no vote for the Raglan Community Board, the meeting provided an opportunity for Board members to meet the community. Jon Taylor was the only one of the new Community Board members who turned up, although Bob MacLeod was there as an organiser of the event.
Mayoral candidates Alan Sanson and Noel Smith were at the meeting. When asked about Community Boards, Allan Sanson highlighted the high costs of the Local Boards in the Auckland Super City. Noel pointed out that each Auckland Local Board covered a population that was a lot bigger than the entire Waikato District and that community board costs in Waikato are tiny in comparison. Noel added that he was horrified earlier in the year when Waikato council voted against giving more delegated authority to Community Boards.
I found the question about water meters most revealing. Might Raglan23 run a story on the water meters being trialled around the country and the risks of salt getting into our water supply?
Cr Baddeley made some interesting comments about what he had been told about salt water getting into acquifiers. This has been a problem in Florida and in Victoria. In Canterbury the huge draw-off from underground acquifiers for irrigating dairy farms has caused problems. I will ask WDC for a copy of the report Cr Baddeley was referring to. The Raglan water supply comes from a stream supplied by springs in the hills. The Ghyben-Herzberg theory would therefore predict that it is very unlikely that salt would get into the Raglan water supply. WDC did try bores a few years ago but my understanding is that these were abandoned as they didn’t provide a reliable supply.
So Clint’s answer doesn’t have much relevance to answering the question about why we (not Florida, Victoria, or Canterbury) need water meters. Nor does his answer that water meters are being developed. So why do we have a councillor who can’t give a relevant answer to an issue which has so far cost over a million in Raglan alone?
Too early to come to that conclusion – we need to see the report and see what the experts said. Cr Baddeley is not a profesional engineer and I would not expect him or Mr Vink to understand this. They should be able to rely on professional advice from Council staff.
I am more concerned about Mayoral candidate Mr Sanson who confused the costs of running local boards in Auckland for huge population areas with the very small sum that it costs WDC to run each community board. That is basic accounting that every Council candidate should understand. For a Mayoral candidate to not undertand this is remarkable. Thank goodness Cr Smith was able to help Mr Sanson out on getting this right.
If it’s costing over $1m and putting water rates up 12% a year, shouldn’t a politician have a clear idea of why it’s being done before it goes ahead?
It was my question which said there’s enough traffic on SH23 to fill a bus every 15min 24×7. I also pointed out that council spends less than 2% of its transport budget on buses, even though 5% of its ratepayers don’t own cars. Unfortunately I didn’t hear any candidate support the idea, though I think Alan Vink agreed there should be more than the current 3 buses a day.
I am standing for Mayor in the up coming elections and had made enquires about attending your “Meet the Candidate” meeting on Saturday.
I was informed that it was for the two councillors only, and that if I attended I would not be able to address the meeting; consequentaly I made other arangements for the day.
It was, thefore, very dissapointing to find that the two mayoral candidates who attended the meeting were able to address it.
I stand for increased responsibilities for Community Boards as they are the people who are much more in-tune with the community’s needs and where the priority for expenditure lies.
Check out my web site http://www.brucecameron.co.nz for more information.
Reply from Bob MacLeod of Raglan Res & Ratepayers:
The meeting was a public meeting and anyone can attend, yes it was the intention of the association to address Local Raglan Candidates as in the past. However as the Raglan Community Board members are confirmed in their positions a number chose not to attend, and the mediators decided to invite the candidates present in the public meeting to comment. It must be noted that most of the questions were related to candidates views and commitments.
I was surprised at the amount of speaking time Allan Sanson and Noel Smith were given.I was clearly told that the meeting was for local candidates only.On my reckoning the two Mayor candidates spoke for about 30-40% of the available time.
In his advert in this week’s Chronicle current Mayor Sanson promises that “As your Mayor I have and will continue to be assessable to all ratepayers.” Do you think he means “accessible” ? Then again, to deconstruct the promise it could be interpreted as (1) “As your Mayor I have to be assessable to all ratepayers” and (2) “As your Mayor I will continue to be assessable to all ratepayers” where my understanding of “assessable” is paired with valuation. Perhaps the Mayor is just not too good with spelling, or editing, and promises to continue taxing (ie make strenuous demands on) ratepayers? Some punctuation might help, too. The previous paragraph seems to contradict the behaviour of both Mayor and Local Councillor Baddeley as discussed in my letter to the Chronicle editor tucked away on page 12, which I found “totally unacceptable, from both a political and ethical viewpoint.” There is another word that one could use for such behaviour, of course!
At least Mr Sanson usually has a cheery smile. A candidate for Mayor needs other qualities.
“Too early to come to that conclusion – we need to see the report” – any sign of the report on salt water yet?
They did answer my request, but it didn’t answer the question, so I didn’t put it up. Here it is:
—————————————————————–
From: Erin Rangi-Watt [mailto:Erin.Rangi-Watt@waidc.govt.nz]
Sent: Friday, 20 September 2013 11:12 a.m.
To: rodger@raglan23.co.nz
Subject: RE: [rcb] FW: Inundation of salt water into water supply
Hello Rodger. As requested here is the response to your query from Waikato District Council General Manager, Service Delivery, Tim Harty says:
Waikato District Council’s first priority is to educate residents on how they can better manage water use for their immediate needs, while also taking into consideration future growth.
Any discussions on installing water meters in Raglan have been driven by their function as a water conservation tool which can prompt us to think about how much water we use. For example, last summer, Raglan’s highest daily demand per water connection was over 1500 litres, double the recommended average!
That’s why we have introduced the ‘Smart Water Starts with You’ campaign. This is a joint initiative between Waikato District, Hamilton City and Waipa District Councils which aims to modify people’s perception of water as being a limited and precious resource. The programme isn’t intended to be a ‘quick fix’ but will promote long-term, sustainable behavioural changes.
Erin Rangi-Watt
Senior Communications Advisor
Waikato District Council
No wonder Clint didn’t want to give that explanation. It makes little more sense than his salt water story. So it seems there’s no shortage of water in Raglan, but they’re installing expensive meters (at least they will if they can get radio to work underground!) to meet a national average. Do we really want to continue with this and the councillor who approved it without understanding it?
John you are doing well if you can see sense in this statement. The thing about averages is that about half the data points are above the average and about half are below the average be definition. If all data points above the national average moved down to below the ‘average’ then there would be a new national average!
In Raglan’s case we are a tourist destination and you would expect water usage to be higher than the national average over summer. The comment just confirms how disengaged Waikato Distrcit Council is from what makes Raglan tick.
Water meters are an expensive extravangance that we don’t need. If only we had a Raglan candidate to vote for, like Hamilton’s Ewan Wilson, who was opposed to water meters in Raglan.
Alan has copied this letter to me –
Dear Editor
I would like to go on record as being opposed to water meters for Raglan.While I strongly support water conservation measures I don’t subscribe to the idea that we need these very expensive devices.
The salt water story from all accounts is a fabrication and doesn’t have any scientific basis to it.
Kind Regards
Alan Vink
Councillor Candidate