“Yesterday was a bit of a whirlwind, my phone absolutely blew up, so I was working through messages and calls and also spoke to all provisionally elected councillors to congratulate them, which I think is an important way to start.”
Gilmore said locals had voted for a change at the top as they believed the council needed to do things differently.
“There are a lot of challenges in local government, but if we continue doing things the same way, we’ll go backwards.
“Affordability is a huge concern for people and they wanted some new ideas on how to get a handle on that.”
Recruiting for a new chief executive, getting the council to agree on initial priorities and working on the annual plan are his immediate priorities.
Gilmore, with 2342 votes on Saturday, led Collis (1960) by almost 400 votes. Steve Wallace (809) was third.
Early results include most ordinary votes but don’t include votes dropped off on the last day or special votes.
Full progress results:
Mayoral race
GILMORE, Scott 2342
COLLIS, Tracey 1960
WALLACE, Steve 809
SPENCE, Michael 303
NATTRASS, Evan Matthew 226
North Tararua General Ward (4 vacancies)
WALLACE, Steve 1569
PEETI-WEBBER, Erana 1471
WARDS, Sharon 1293
AMBOY, Alison 1235
WALKER, James 1180
WALLACE, Ron 1133
SCOTT, Thomas 680
MOORE, Trev 617
SPENCE, Michael 565
LYFORD, Susan 551
WATSON, Dot 235
South Tararua General Ward (4 vacancies)
GILMORE, Scott (withdrawn if he becomes mayor) 1,571
KENNEDY, Elisabeth 823
JOHNS, Peter 812
NAYLOR, Peter 722
CORLETT, Chris 599
BLYTH, Hamish 521
NATTRASS, Evan Matthew 515
CHRISTISON, Ernie 465
LONG, Mike 453
WATSON, Mark 409
HINDRY, Ethan 373
