Council candidates address environmental concerns and goals

September 10th, 2010
By David Armstrong

The first of two formal 'Meet the Candidates' meetings in Motueka was held last night to hear what local body election candidates have to say about environmental matters.

The meeting, hosted by Transition Town Motueka (TTM), attracted about 15 residents but, disappointingly, only three candidates. This did give candidates time to go into some detail on some of their favourite issues.

The meeting began with TTM spokeswoman Joanna Santa Barbara setting out the organisation's wish list of 16 items seen as key to building a more sustainable district better able to withstand the environmental, peak-oil and financial challenges of our time.

Tara Forde (standing for TDC) said if elected she would advocate strongly for regional politicians to take the lead in planning for climate change, rather than just reacting as changes happen. She pointed out that at the last election one-half of the elected Councillors responded to a Forest and Bird survey saying that they did not believe in climate climate. She would push for council to develop a proper climate change strategy - what climate change means to the district and what the council could do to address specific outcomes.

In particular she wants to press for a greater priority being placed by council on footpaths and cycleways (currently $200,000 on new paths and maintenance) rather than just roads (currently $9 million). She said that as a community board member she had been pushing hard for greater priority and more action on footpath ramps to cater far better for prams, mobility scooters and walkers in general. "We want more people to exercise and use cycles and their legs, but we can't do that if the infrastructure is not in place to enable it," she said.

She was also concerned that the sewage ponds' placement, currently near sea level, will lead to big problems in future.

Boris Leegwater (standing for TDC) spoke of how his great concern about several issues, and the current council's seeming indifference to them, was the trigger for his decision to stand for council. Key among these were the pollution from orchard burnoffs which were particularly bad in the winter of 2009, and water pollution due to dairying and other intensive farming practices.

He said that if elected he has a raft of ideas that would lead to better balance in policy making by council on environmental matters. He also was concerned that some current councillors "just don't want to know about climate change".

David Ogilvie (standing for Community Board) expressed his concern that no other candidates for the board were present. He spent much of his presentation talking how the board acts as a communication and advocacy channel between residents and council, saying that yelling angrily about specific problems is not the best way to get things done.

He spoke of the "dripping tap" approach, where issues are continually raised and advocated and eventually are dealt with. "It can be very frustrating, but we are getting there on some issues," he said. If they push too hard, councillors tend to erect a wall and communication breaks down.

He believes the biggest Community Board issue he's been involved with is over water allocation and reticulation, and he is still concerned with the council's approach to water abstraction and recent changes in the district plan.

Questions from the floor led to discussions on a few specific issues, which at times bordered on the work of a committee meeting with everyone offering ideas rather than just hearing what the candidates thought. Primary among these was solar water heating and mini-hydro projects to generate more power locally.

Tara said she would encourage the TDC to link the district in with Nelson on the "Solar City" initiative, which would encourage local investment by solar heating firms and help residents financially to install systems. She was worried about the council's cynical disinterest and discouragement around any small scale electricity generation, making developments harder to start.

Boris spoke of his concerns about the cost of housing in the area for lower income people and particularly young people wanting to remain and live in Motueka. This led to a discussion among the audience about various options for council-subsidised housing and other trust-based systems that may be possible.

A similar all-in discussion arose on the topic of the Transportation Plan and traffic in High Street, where David in particular was able to use his experiences to point out the difficulties that surround this issue.

In their closing addresses, Tara made a clear plea to the environmental interests in the room: it's fine to have high ideals on these important challenges, but she was not interested in sounding them off. She was interested only in the realities of finding workable solutions that are practical to the whole community.

Comment by Joanna Santa Barbara:
[Posted 11 September 2010]
Thanks for an excellent report on this meeting, David.

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