Plumb job for Alan Bickers

Former Tauranga City Council chief executive Alan Bickers has been appointed chairman of the authority which controls New Zealand's plumbing industry.
The Tauranga engineer was this week elected chairman of the New Zealand Plumbers, Fitters and Drainlayers Board.
"My goal is to restore the reputation of the board so that it is respected and appreciated as a fair and responsible regulator in the public interest," he said.
Mr Bickers has spent much of his career in local government and was chief executive of Tauranga City Council from 1987-95.
He was a member of the New Zealand Standards Council from 1993-97 and was appointed to the board of Transit New Zealand in 1997, taking over as chairman in 2000 and retiring from Transit in 2004. Mr Bickers was the inaugural chairman of the Building Practitioners' Board in 2005 and has been active in the Institute of Professional Engineers for more than 30 years.