After a six-year hiatus from local government, newly elected CHB rural ward councillor David Tennent says he is looking forward to getting back into it this term. The former two-term councillor, whose last stint in council was under former mayor Trish Giddens, said he had detected there was an appetite forchange in the community. "I consider myself very fortunate to be part of a fresh team. "It's quite exciting - Alex has a really good mandate to lead the council forward in a new direction." After unsuccessfully seeking re-election in 2010 and 2013, he said his former experience when he was involved at an in-depth level, especially when Tim Gilbertson was mayor, meant he had a good handle on how council worked, the protocols and procedures. From the outside in the last few years, he said he had been alerting the community that the council's governance had not been working. "The BCA should not have happened if the governance systems had been adhered to. "The community has picked up on that and spoken loud and clear that things should be better." He said that he thought that people wanted change, and that maybe he was a compromise between change and some experience. "I have some middle ground and take it as a compliment that I am able to come back in, and I look foward to the challenge." He said the varied cross-section of new councillors would be very interesting, and that the average age of the councillors had been reduced considerably. "Having that energy and being able to relate to the next generation is pretty important."
