Thank you and welcome to new subscribers 🙂 I’m slightly rearranging my online presence and hope that this newsletter will be a helpful way to keep in touch.
Council
At the inaugural meeting of the Christchurch City Council for the 2022-25 term, Mayor Phil Mauger appointed Innes ward Councillor Pauline Cotter as Deputy Mayor. This prompted a “Wow!” response on Facebook from Innes Council candidate Ali Jones, who finished 16 votes behind Cotter in the declared election result but who at the time of writing was awaiting the outcome of an application for a recount.
Not long after, a new governance structure was announced by Mayor Mauger. This new structure, which includes two Committees of the Whole, compared with four in the previous term of the Council, is being brought to the first ordinary meeting of the Council on 2 November for approval.
Community Board
The Waipapa/Papanui-Innes-Central Community Board held its inaugural meeting on Friday 28 October. The Board currently consists of eight members, with Innes Board member-elect Shreejana Chhetri having resigned between the declaration of results and the inaugural. Emma Norrish was elected Board Chair, and I am honoured to have been elected Deputy Chair. I’m looking forward to my role this term as deputy chair and supporting the community across the whole Board area - a larger scope than the Papanui-Innes board had previously, extending from Redwood through Papanui, St Albans, the central city and to Phillipstown.
Further reporting on the inaugural meeting by St Albans News can be found on Facebook.
The first ordinary meeting of the Community Board will be held on Thursday 10 November at 9am in the Papanui Boardroom. The meeting will be open for the public to attend and will be livestreamed on the Board’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Some of what I’ve been up to
It feels like an age ago now, but back at the start of October I caught up with then-Papanui Councillor Mike Davidson, along with Councillor Sara Templeton and Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb at the Biketober Go By Bike Breakfast in the central city.
I’m part of a team, along with Community Board colleagues, that competes in Edgeware Pool fundraising quizzes. We took out top spot in the most recent quiz. Follow Edgeware Pool on Facebook for news of future events.
There have been a heap of community events in recent weeks, including the St Silas Plant and Book Sale, the Northern Community Market (now running weekly through the summer months), open day at St Paul’s Anglican Church as part of the Christchurch Heritage Festival, and Spring Fair hosted by Richmond Community Garden and Avebury House.
I attended Birthright Canterbury’s blessing of their new Christchurch office at Papanui Youth Development Trust in Papanui. Another great example of collaboration between community organisations in the north west of Christchurch. Great to catch up at the event with former Councillor Glenn Livingston, now the chair of the Rātā Foundation.
Te Ao Māori News ran a story on the new whare at Te Ora Hou Ōtautahi. I’ve been working at Te Ora Hou for nearly twelve years and have been project manager for our site development, including construction of our whare Te Iho o Te Ora. Watch the story here.
I attended a briefing ran by Free Fares NZ on their campaign to ask the Government to keep half price fares for all public transport users. Currently they’re set to end on 31 January 2023. Check out Free Fares NZ on Facebook or at freefares.nz for more information.
I attended the Papanui High School senior prizegiving in the Town Hall.
I caught up with incoming Councillor for Papanui Victoria Henstock for an informal chat about how we can support the Papanui area as members of the Community Board.
…and at the end of last week at our inaugural meeting, as mentioned above, I was honoured to be elected deputy chair of the Community Board.
Thanks for reading! Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss anything related to my Community Board role, or anything else mentioned above or that you know or think I might be interested in. You can also just hit ‘reply’ if you’ve received this newsletter by email.
Ka pai. Keep it up!