Suzanne Williams

Well, for better or worse, votes have been cast, and we have to cope with the results of our decisions.

From last Friday's Beacon:  Thank you, B Kawe for your thoughtful and well-expressed analysis of these results, which, due to a split vote, were very close between the two leaders in the mayoral race.  In an MMP-like system for local government we could have Victor Luca and Philip Jacobs uniting and working together – difficult, but could work, in Lala-land. We have two sound new people as replacement councillors.

John Capener's letter detailing the Tim Shadbolt election in West Auckland 40 years ago, seems to me to be a fair summation of the last three years of Whakatāne District Council activity, which, from my observation of the meetings, to have been an almost continuous catalogue of opposition to anything Dr Luca has tried to achieve from his expressed agenda.

It was sour grapes from councillors previously standing for mayor, and a departure into hypocrisy from Nandor Tanczos, who, in 2022, stood for election on a platform of Green environmental issues, along with minimum “nice-to-haves” and rate rises; only to oppose any efforts to introduce these by the mayor over the past three years.

We must now be prepared to tighten our belts even further if this is taken as our future road, unless a further about-face is contemplated by our mayor.

We have lost a leader of the district whom it was a privilege to have had working for us.