National Party regional development spokesman Simon Watts takes a trip to Whanganui

National's spokesman for regional development Simon Watts (left) with Whanganui National candidate Carl Bates. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui has “a real need for infrastructure”, National Party regional development spokesman Simon Watts says.

“Having resilient infrastructure is critical for regional development in our local economies across the country, and it is really important to keep neighbourhoods and communities connected.”

Watts visited Whanganui on Thursday to hold a public meeting on the Three Waters reform programme alongside Whanganui electoral candidate Carl Bates.

He said he saw no place for co-governance within the delivery of public services and National’s Local Water Done Well policy would rely on existing relationships between councils and iwi.

“We’re confident that our model will be a sustainable model for change.”

Watts, who is also National’s spokeman for climate change, said climate adaptation was a critical topic.

Flooding was “very much front of mind” for the Whanganui community.

“We’ve been very consistent in saying that we need a clear national framework to deal with climate adaptation.”

He said National would focus on accelerating the biotech sector to find innovative ways in reducing methane emissions from farms.

Bates said Watts met with Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe and council members as part of his visit to Whanganui.

“We’ve spoken already ... about further investigation into the Dublin St Bridge replacement, which is something that was on the National Party’s transport policy that was released two weeks ago, as a key piece of infrastructure,” Bates said.

Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.