www.guardianONLINE.co.nz
THE VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY 24/7
IN TODAY’S GUARDIAN
Guardian
Ashburton
www.guardianONLINE.co.nz
Friday, July 26, 2013
FIRST PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 27, 1879
Third person throws hat in mayoral ring By Susan Sandys Mid Canterbury’s mayoral race is heating up as a third candidate announces his intention to stand for election. Ashburton District Councillor and former Mount Hutt College principal Don McLeod has been nominated by two fellow councillors who have both already stated their intentions not to stand again – John Leadley and Jim Burgess. His nominations for the mayoralty and another for councillor were received by the council late on Wednesday, representing the first two received by the council since nominations opened. Mr Leadley and Mr Burgess yesterday had no comment on what they thought of the leadership of incumbent Angus McKay, but did not want that interpreted as they did not support him. “No more than I will comment on the other three I have worked under. I’m not into comparing mayors,” said Mr Leadley, who worked with
Don McLeod Bede O’Malley, Murray Anderson and Geoff Geering before Mr McKay. “I think it’s a role we need to have a choice, I believe he (Mr McLeod) has the skills to do a very good job if he was elected,” Mr Leadley said. Mr Burgess said he had enjoyed working with Mr McKay. “Don came to see me and I was happy to second his nomination,
Former mayor calls for clean contest Mid Canterbury’s longest serving mayor of recent times, Geoff Geering, 80, has some advice for the three contenders in the mayoral race. “I think the three candidates should present themselves as to what their vision is for the next three years, and not enter into
Cash flow + Open homes in Rakaia Bella Vista and Methven Quality motel
any slanging match amongst each other, but have a clean contest,” Mr Geering said. “And may the best person win.” Until he retired from the role in 1995, Mr Geering served six consecutive terms as mayor, and was elected unopposed for five of those.
it wasn’t anything to do with being anti-Angus,” Mr Burgess said. He had the “greatest respect” for Mr McLeod and believed he could do a good job. Mr McKay said he was not surprised by the nomination, as he had “heard rumours for quite some time”. Having three candidates was a “good choice for the people of Ashburton”. Mr McLeod, a one-term councillor who is aged 65, also had no criticism for the current leadership of the council. He said Mr McKay “works very hard”. “I’m just offering a different set of skills,” he said. He believed it was “great for the district” that voters had a clear set of choices for the coming election. He wanted to improve council communication, and wanted to develop both economic and social prosperity of the district. “I want to make sure in working with working with the new legislation (recent changes to the Local Government Act) we don’t lose sight of the importance of the social wellbeing of the district,” Mr McLeod said. The council currently had no “big ticket” or “burning” issues coming into the next local government term, rather there were a number of projects in progress which would continue, and he had been supportive of the art gallery/museum and stadium. There was ongoing development and the council needed to continue to emphasise its need for national road funding, and he wanted to see irrigation and other infrastructure continuing to be a priority. Mr McLeod is married to Ashburton College teacher Denise O’Halloran and the couple have two adult sons.
leaseMORE DETAILS INSIDE
Call OJ Call 12 OJ14- 14 0800 12 14 14 0800 Martin Dodson text 021 74 33 94
Licensed Real Estate Agents
www.professionals.co.nz
Home delivered from
Methven Real Estate Ltd
90c Casual $1.40
How many ways to use a broadsheet Coen Lammers editor
Y
ou may want to hang on to your paper today. Readers use the Guardian for all kinds of things after they finish reading it, but today you have the last large broadsheet edition in your hands. After 133 years and 242 days, the Ashburton Guardian on Monday is changing all its six editions to the modern, more convenient compact size. So this paper is truly a special one that any historians may want to keep somewhere safe. Some readers will not be so amused, like owners of local takeaway shops who have used our pages for more than a century to wrap their hot chips. You will still get a paper on Monday, but it will only be able to fit half a scoop. Others have used our large newsprint sheets to cover tables when their kids are painting, or cover the carpet when they are painting their house. Many have relied on the larger size to line their birdcages, wrap presents or put on their car windows to keep out the frost. We apologise for any inconvenience on those fronts but hope that our smaller, revamped Guardian will make up for losing your wrapping paper. You will find that Monday’s paper has double the pages, with more news, sport and opinion plus new sections like Your Place and a full puzzles page. We will be celebrating our launch with a barbeque lunch on East Street so please come and join us for a free sausage and tell us what you think of your new Guardian.
BROADSHEET NEWSPAPER USES What to do with a broadsheet Guardian Read it, enjoy it Light the fire Cover floors for redecorating Pack fish and chips
w Da
Clean windows Line birdcage/ rabbit cage Keep frost off vehicle windows Wrap broken glass Table cover for kids’ art work Wrap pass-the-parcel Stuff into wet shoes
f a new no er
3
a
days to go
photo kirsty clay 250713-kc-019
The loss of the larger format broadsheet paper will probably not go down well with the owners of the local takeaway shops who have used our pages for more than a century to wrap their hot chips.
Massive drop in council confidence ‘worrying’ By Susan Sandys
John Leadley: Trend “worrying”
Satisfaction with the performance of the mayor and councillors has dropped from 76 per cent four years ago to just 42 per cent today. This is among many results released yesterday from the Ashburton District Council’s annual residents’ survey, and is a trend councillor John Leadley called “worrying”. Mr Leadley said part of the trend may be due to council communication, which the council was addressing, and it could also be attributable to a lack of knowl-
edge among the public of the role of and work councillors do. He hoped the poor public perception was reflected by voter motivation leading to a high turnout at the coming local body elections. The results showed 42 per cent of residents rated councillor and mayor performance as very or fairly good, compared to 44 per cent last year, to which it had dropped since 2009. Another 32 per cent rated their performance as just acceptable, while 21 per cent rated their performance as not very good or poor. The national average was 46 per cent. Resident satisfaction with com-
munity consultation remained low, at 48 per cent, compared to 47 per cent last year, dropping from 69 per cent in 2009. This year’s result was higher than the national average for councils, which was 38 per cent. The results triggered discussion among councillors at their Finance and Community Services Committee meeting yesterday. Chief executive Brian Lester commented on the fact that residents least likely to be satisfied lived in the Ashburton township. He had recently read a book which said urban populations tended to “take their perceptions from what they read in the media as opposed
to what they experienced”. Councillor Darryl Nelson said an example of that could be reflected in the results of the survey for drinking water quality. The council had spent millions on a new intake of deep wells providing high quality water, yet satisfaction was 73 per cent among urban service users, compared to the national average of 89 per cent. He wondered if town residents reading media reports on copper water cylinders had anything to do with the relatively low satisfaction rate. Community planning manger Gavin Thomas said councils had a
“hard row to hoe” when it came to public perception of consultation. Most of the community were not interested in engaging in consultation unless it was about an issue that affected them and most were relatively comfortable with not engaging, “then every now and again a larger group of people want to get active around a particular issue”. Then “all of a sudden” the council was perceived as not engaging properly. “It’s not a referendum process, it’s an information seeking process. So it’s a tough thing to get across to people that they are not going to get their way every time,” Mr Thomas said.
The report is compiled from the council conducting a telephone survey of residents, and the council said overall in its report summary that the results were mostly “steady, with satisfaction in most areas remaining unchanged or experiencing a small change”. Significant movement included satisfaction with the way rates were spent, up by seven per cent. New questions were introduced for this year’s survey gauging support for making video recordings of meetings available online and changing council meeting times. Results showed most were unlikely to access such recordings or come to evening meetings.
ASHBURTON
Today’s weather
HIGH LOW
13
3