Opinion: Nigel Corry is Wellington Regional Council's new chief executive

Penny Gaylor.

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

This week Greater Wellington Regional Council welcomed our new chief executive Nigel Corry.

Nigel took over the reins from Greg Campbell on September 15 and will be familiar to iwi, stakeholders and community members, having served as the deputy chief executive of Greater Wellington since September 2018, as well as general manager environment, general manager of people and customer and a number of other environmental roles at Greater Wellington in a career with the council dating back to 1998.

Nigel has a strong track record of building high staff engagement and trust and brings a wealth of environmental analysis and policy, government relations, iwi engagement, and negotiating skills to the table from his roles at Greater Wellington and elsewhere. It's great to have him leading the organisation.

Sadly we had to cancel our public Spade Aid planting event at Queen Elizabeth Park this year because of Covid-19 restrictions.

Thankfully our amazing team at Greater Wellington and 10 awesome volunteers managed to get the 5000 trees in the ground. Ka rawe team.

Metlink is offering free travel on buses and trains to anyone travelling to get their Covid-19 vaccination as part of a coordinated effort to boost attendance at vaccination centres and events across the region.

GWRC is working with Waka Kotahi and the district health boards to make getting a Covid-19 vaccination as easy as possible.

Passengers can simply hop on board any of our Metlink bus and train services as they head for a vaccination. Metlink is proud to be able to offer this important service to our region's communities at this time.

The free return trip on Metlink bus and train services will be available to all passengers travelling on the day of their vaccination appointment who can show their booking confirmation and date either on paper or their devices.

Passengers unable to use buses or trains are encouraged to contact Metlink directly on 0800 801 700 to arrange community transport to and from their vaccination centre.

Metlink advises passengers to please follow all government advice at all alert levels when waiting for and on board all of our services.