Surprised BOP winner delighted

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE and JO-MARIE BROWN

Tauranga's new mayor, Jan Beange, was stunned at her win over the heir apparent, Stuart Crosby, the former deputy to retiring mayor Noel Pope.

Up against seven men, only two with council experience, the 40-year-old Mt Maunganui lawyer and mother of two had waged a low-budget campaign.

"It was a bit like David and Goliath, but there was a mood for change."

Although low turnouts tend to favour incumbents, Ms Beange said that those electors committed enough to vote were better informed.

"Delighted but surprised" at her 1800 vote majority, she said her first priority was to get members of the new council together and to work out their strengths and interests.

High on the list of problems to tackle was Tauranga's roading congestion.

Tauranga region Chamber of Commerce president Bruce McCutcheon said Jan Beange would be a breath of fresh air.

He said Tauranga faced "some real economic dilemmas".

Its growth had come through housing rather than industry, apart from the port.

The retirements of some long serving mayors have given the Bay of Plenty and Taupo region new blood on its district councils.

Like Tauranga, Taupo has chosen a local lawyer with no previous local government service to lead it for the next three years.

Rotorua and Whakatane have returned their mayors and Western Bay of Plenty, Opotiki, Kawerau and Gisborne have replaced retired leaders with experienced councillors.

Taupo's Clayton Stent will head a spring-cleaned council with just five of the old guard left. The fate of a sixth, Arthur Smallman, depends on special votes.

"I think having new blood in there is actually going to be a very good link between the community's feelings and council decisions," Mr Stent said.

Gisborne businessman Meng Foon, who was born in the district and speaks Maori and Cantonese, is mayor after two terms on council. He has promised to reduce the region's estimated $38 million debt.

The troubled Western Bay of Plenty District Council is now in the hands of former deputy mayor Graeme Weld.

The 64-year-old Te Puke farmer beat four other men for the top job and will preside over a council that has half its membership made up of newcomers.

Gone are most of the combatants of the past, with only two Resource Users Association members elected (there were five last time) and one councillor from the new Democracy Network in Action ticket, which put up eight candidates.

Orchardist John Forbes, a four-term councillor, won the 10-man Opotiki mayoralty race by a neck. He takes over from Don Riesterer who, after 12 years as mayor, has scored a seat on the Bay of Plenty District Health Board.

Kawerau District Council's former deputy mayor Malcolm Campbell comfortably won the mayoralty and Rotorua District Council's Grahame Hall will embark on his fourth term in office.

Voters bought Colin Hammond's campaign slogan for the Whakatane mayoralty: "One good term deserves another".

On Saturday he became the first second-term mayor the district has had in almost 20 years.

Whakatane's electors also supported their council continuing to add fluoride to their water supply through a non-binding referendum.

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