Third starter in Rangitikei mayoralty stakes

THE race for the Rangitikei mayoralty now has three confirmed entrants.
First-term councillor and current deputy mayor Andy Watson has now stepped up to the starting line alongside his two council colleagues Nick Eddy from Marton and Chalky Leary from Hunterville.
The 52-year-old farmer and tourism operator from Marton said his decision to seek the mayoralty was mainly prompted by his enthusiasm for Rangitikei and a desire to continue to support and advance a district he believes has a sound and positive future.
"I love the Rangitikei& I have no desire to go anywhere else and I see this as a district with a huge future," he said.
Mr Watson said the past three years had involved "a huge amount of learning" inside and outside council.
As well as being deputy mayor he has chaired the council's strategy committee, served on the environment and regulatory and policy committees and is an appointed Resource Management Act commissioner.
He is also Rangitikei representative on the management board of the joint Rangitikei-Ruapehu-Wanganui major regional initiative.
Those varied experiences have led him to the view that the district council needs to change in a number of ways.
His list of priorities includes a review of Rangitikei's rating system which, Mr Watson says, is "one of the most complex in New Zealand for a relatively small local authority".
He also has concerns about the way the current ward structure tends to encourage parochialism and intends to look for ways to break that down so that council and staff time and energy can be put to best use where it is needed most.
Mr Watson sees the council's underlying role and purpose as being to retain people and businesses in the district and promote and encourage growth. To achieve the latter, the district must have "the infrastructure available to make that happen".
In that respect he believes there must be properly planned development rather than what he regards as the "piecemeal" approach of the past.
He also aims to encourage the council to be more proactive in improving its public image.
"We need to be going out and asking people how we can assist them rather than waiting for them to come and ask us specific questions," he said.
And in common with his mayoral race rivals, Mr Watson sees a need to improve the way the council does its business. "We tend to spend a lot of time discussing reports on things we can't do anything about and that generates huge volumes of paper," he said.
"What we really need is to ensure we have better, and more timely information & especially financial information." Having travelled some distance around the learning curve in the past three years, Mr Watson has no illusions about how much further he still has to go.
But going the distance as the council's leader is a challenge he is keen to take on.