Old foes add spice in Waitakere election

By WAYNE THOMPSON

A challenge by three old foes of Mayor Bob Harvey and the jousting between two tickets for the council are adding spice to an election in Waitakere City that is short on red-hot issues.

Vanessa Neeson, Chris Seagar and Ross Britten are taking on Mr Harvey, the mayor for nine years, a former Labour Party president and top advertising man.

Mr Harvey and Mr Seagar have clashed often, the most famous occasion being when, according to Mr Seagar, Mr Harvey did a down-trou and shouted an obscenity at him while the mayor was jogging in Titirangi one morning.

Mr Seagar says he wants to bring more accountability to the mayoralty and to make the council's performance more business-like.

His wife, Doreen, and her sister, Annette Goulding, are both standing for the council.

Mrs Neeson, wife of Brian Neeson, National MP for Waitakere, is making her fourth bid for the mayoralty. She says it is prompted by the thought of the city being ruled by the Labour Party under the banner of the Team West ticket, with which Mr Harvey is aligned.

Mr Britten is making his second attempt. The Swanson entrepreneur enraged Mr Harvey with his cartoon Christmas cards showing a cat in a sleigh pulled by rats.

Despite the zeal of his foes, Mr Harvey's position is safe.

His successful promotions during the past three years have included the light rail scheme, an 80ha People's Park at Te Atatu and a superyacht-building cluster at Hobsonville Air Base.

He is constantly nagging his council to have vision and to spend more money on economic development to make money.

The big question this election is how Waitakere voters will respond to having two contrasting tickets. Historically, voters have made independents the highest-polling candidates.

The new Team West ticket, which includes Mr Harvey and four sitting councillors, has the backing of the powerful pressure group the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society.

Mr Harvey says Team West has superb candidates and he is looking forward to working with them to achieve positive change.

The other major ticket, Go Waitakere, will continue promoting user-pays policies to bring down rates for higher-valued properties.

Current councillor Allen Davies said Go Waitakere struck difficulty in bringing promised rates reductions in the past three years but with the support of some independent councillors achieved a drop of $30 overall.

The council held its rates this year while increasing its spending by 0.42 per cent.

The average city house, valued at $86,000, pays $1282 a year in rates.

This year, each home will pay a $9 levy towards the $470,000 needed to develop the People's Park in Te Atatu.

The future use of the 80ha of paddocks beside the Waitemata Harbour and the Northwestern Motorway was a longstanding contentious issue decided this year.

Mr Harvey says the council's spending focus has been on providing the basic services such as water, wastewater, roads and parks.

But Mr Britten says the council should be spending more on immediate relief of congested main roads.

Mrs Neeson says the council could spend more on infrastructure if it stopped bankrolling social services, which were the responsibility of the Government.

Feature: Local body elections 2001

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