Mix of new and old faces

Brian Jeffares

Local body candidate nominations closed at noon on Friday, and residents now face some choices regarding who they cast their votes for in October.

The Stratford District Council has two candidates standing for mayor, with incumbent Neil Volzke facing a challenge from Tony Milham. The rural ward has six candidates fighting for the four places, with Alan Frost, Graham Kelly and Kevin O'Brien putting their names forward as well as current councillors John Campbell, Rob Thomson and Robin Vickers.

The urban ward has nine candidates battling for the six places available with four of these being new names; Danny Bates, Wayne Burnnand, Jono Erwood and Terry Lester. The incumbents standing are Roger Hignett, Alan Jamieson, Viv Milner, John Sandford and Kelvin Squire.

The Taranaki Regional Council has already declared some candidates as elected members due to the number of candidates for those wards being not more than the number of vacancies. This has seen Brian Jeffares retain his seat for the Stratford constituency and Mike Davey and Roger Maxwell retain their seats for the North Taranaki constituency.

"I am delighted to have the privilege of representing Stratford on the TRC," Brian says.

"I will continue to advocate for the community as a whole."

He adds that he thinks councillors must continue to be "mindful of the costs that we must contain through our rating process".

Mike says he looks forward to another term serving on the Regional Council, adding that he's proud of the council's achievements in areas such as riparian planting and freshwater quality.

In the South Taranaki constituency, five candidates are battling for three vacancies, with Joe Menzies and Alan Murray both putting their names forward as well as the current three councillors, Michael Joyce, David Macleod and Neil Walker. Alan is the son of a former two-term Hawera mayor, the late Bruce Murray. Alan says it is his family's "love of Taranaki" that has seen him decide to stand. Joe says he hopes to represent "farmers as a whole" and that his interest in community involvement has been encouraged by his involvement in the Lake Rotokare trust.