Five vie for Hastings mayoralty as Darrin Wilson joins race

Hastings businessman Darrin Wilson is the fifth candidate to put his hand up as a mayoral candidate for Hastings District Council in the October elections.

Prepare for some pyrotechnics - a fifth candidate has entered the race to become Hastings mayor.

Darrin Wilson - a car and furniture upholsterer, fireworks salesman and successful motorbike-racing enthusiast - has lived in Hastings all his life.

He goes up against councillors Damon Harvey, Wendy Schollum and Marcus Buddo and businessman Steve Gibson.

Wilson says the idea to put his hand up for mayor started as a joke last year.

“Everyone was talking about how much the rates had increased. I thought that’s not cool and jokingly said ‘I’m going to be mayor next year’.”

Now he is serious.

“I want to run for Mayor. I want to have an amazing team that can move forward, clean that building out, make it run like clockwork.

“I need to look at all the accounts and where our money is going. It belongs to the people of the city, not the people who control the council,” Wilson said.

Wilson has won multiple national and international awards as a solo-bike rider.

“I’ve learned how to focus with all the things I have done over the years, including being a self-employed qualified car and furniture upholsterer, a full-time Radio DJ for a few decades and 30 trips around the world,” he said.

“I’m pretty clever and have been successful at everything I’ve done.”

He thinks capping rates is a good idea.

“I’d lower them if I could.

“If I don’t stand up now, the next mayor will be the same as the one before and before that. It can’t go on.”

The owner of a Bad Boy Fireworks franchise, Wilson says the council is “wasting millions of dollars”.

“I’m not here to support the council’s inability to manage money and then ask for more rates. What they are doing to the people of Hawke’s Bay is wrong.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.