Tararua deputy mayor Allan Benbow to stand down after just one term

Tararua District Council deputy mayor Allan Benbow and his wife Kathryn.

After just one term as a Tararua District councillor, deputy mayor Allan Benbow will not be standing again in October, instead he's opted to put his hat in the ring for a seat on Horizons Regional Council.

Benbow, who has had extensive experience in the commercial sector, said he has thought long and hard about standing for the regional council.

"This is a decision not made on a whim," he said.

Benbow is keen to have input into a number of regional issues which could impact the Tararua District, including the One Plan and being a regional councillor is the way to achieve that.

"I see the One Plan in regards to its nitrate leaching rules as having a huge risk for Tararua," he said.

Benbow has been involved in assessing the impact of Horizons One Plan over the past five years and said it has left the dairy farmers and community in a period of uncertainty and he wants to see a good, robust, long-term solution developed without causing further economic, social uncertainty and damage to our community.

A founding member of the Tararua Economic Impact Society, Benbow produced the initial economic impact report on the effects of Horizons One Plan and has gone on to stand up for our district on the issue.

"I'm concerned that while a change process to the One Plan does need to occur, I was not in favour of the three-stage change process Horizons have adopted and I'm pleased the minister, David Parker, is pushing for a solution which isn't a staged process," he said.

"It is good to see regional councillors have now voted to withdraw the application for a faster planning process. This is going to be challenging, time-consuming and expensive and if I can help achieve change and reduce the impact on our district, then that's reason to stand for the regional council."

Benbow brought his considerable business acumen to Tararua District Council when he won a seat at the last local body elections, with more than 35 years experience in senior management positions in both corporate and private business.

Much of this time was in general management roles which included sales and exporting responsibilities, production management, financial management and contract negotiation. He has served on the board of community-owned lines company Scanpower since its inception and is currently chairman of the board. He retired as general manager of Metalform in 2015.

"In many respects I suppose I should buy a caravan and take it easy, however, I do have a passion to see Tararua do as well as it can," he said.

"If I'm successful in gaining a seat on Horizons Regional Council, I don't expect it to be anything other than challenging and frustrating from time to time."

Maharahara dairy farmer John Barrow has told the Dannevirke News he is standing down from the regional council in October, after three terms.

"It's been a bit of a bumpy ride and there are plenty of challenges to come," he said.
For Benbow, river management is also something he's very interested in.

"I think we are all greenies to some extent, so I would like to make some contribution to environmental responsibility as part of Horizons Regional Council," he said. "Regional transport is also a fundamental responsibility of regional government, but it's something I need to understand more."

And while a Tararua District councillor, Benbow said there has been a combination of satisfaction and frustration.

"The key satisfaction has been pushing to get funding for the upgrade of Route 52," he said. "It's very important both for residents out there, but also for our district through tourism and logging. Getting that project on the books and finally getting an enhanced subsidy from NZTA to advance it, was pretty satisfying."

Also a satisfaction was having the district council reverse the sale of pensioner housing and then to upgrade existing units with the installation of heat pumps.
"I'd love to see TDC continue its efforts to increase pensioner housing," he said. "Subject to them being self funding."

There have been frustrations too during his three-year term.

"Having a background in the commercial sector, I've found local government very process driven, making it slow and sometimes cumbersome."

The local body elections will be held on October 12.