Opinion: Always lots on for busy councillor

Part of the Mangakotukutuku Rd. Photo / David Haxton

Weekly column by Kāpiti's Greater Wellington Regional Council representative Penny Gaylor.

There's a lot on everyone's minds at present, I hope you are well and taking care of yourself.

I thought for my column this week I'd share a slice of my schedule this week.

Monday I chaired the GWRC Plan Changes 2022 Working Group meeting, online as we do these days.

This is a subcommittee of the environment committee which I chair, that is tasked with giving regular reflections to GWRC officers working through the detailed policy work for the large body of environmental such as our Natural Resources Plan, our WIPs, the RPS, The NPS-FM.

Yes the meeting preparation reading is not for the faint-hearted.

Tuesday was a council workshop, again online. While the online approach is a typical council response to managing our ability to keep working during these Covid times, I look forward to the human company when we return to the best way to do business — in person and around the same table.

Wednesday (today for some readers), I kicked off my day with an online meeting with senior managers of the environmental divisions of GWRC, a weekly or fortnightly catch up on the issues impacting our organisational responsibilities.

I then scheduled a site visit for an issue raised with me last week by residents on the Mangakotukutuku Rd who have road safety concerns as logging is about to start on the hills and the logging trucks will be using that road daily for the next six months.

Thursday morning will be more online workshopping time as a council, then in the afternoon an online meeting with the Review Panel into the Future for Local Government.

I've earmarked Friday morning for a site visit regarding a waterway issue raised with me in the Waikanae area.

And I've promised myself a day of no online meetings, so am thrilled in the afternoon I'll be at Ōtaki College as a judge for the BP Challenge.

This is probably the sixth time I've done this, where students are in teams and form a business, create a product, and then figure out how to make and market their product.

It's an excellent learning opportunity for the students, showing their creative talents, and exercising their business smarts, and marketing savvy.

And for me as a councillor (who also happens to now be the chair of the Ōtaki College Board), I get an insight into the environmentally sustainable focused minds of our younger citizens who are our problem solvers of the future.

As you can see from this taster of work at regional council, the work across my week is focused on environmental protection and restoration and combating climate change.

My ongoing commitment to those areas of focus means I will be putting myself forward again in the local government elections to hopefully serve another term as your Kāpiti Coast representation on Greater Wellington Regional Council.

Those elections are on October 8.