Prospective councillors and mayoral candidates fronted up to the Glenorchy community at a meet-the-candidates meeting on Thursday night when they were grilled on wastewater, airport growth, tourism growth and how they would tackle
climate change.
It was a much more fiery debate than the first candidates meeting in Queenstown last week, as those running for office debated the best way to manage the environmental impacts of the district's rapid growth.
Candidate Glyn Lewers focused on practical moves such as investing in electric car infrastructure and scrapping the idea of park-and-rides.
But candidate Niki Gladding said growth needed to stop altogether.
"To me, it starts at the airport, and we have to cap flights."
Countering that, candidate Peter Faul said that was "giving up altogether".
"We've got an economy based on tourism, we've got thousands and thousands of families that are relying on the income from tourism.
"What you're talking about is really directly threatening their livelihoods."
When it came to the airport, all nine candidates in attendance said they were against the expansion of Queenstown's Airport's noise boundaries.
Meanwhile, mayoral candidate Al Angus outlined a simple reason for taking another tilt at the top job.
"Where this council has brought us to is ugly, and it needs to stop.
"The job is to get rid of [mayor Jim] Boult, in my opinion."
The long-time Glenorchy resident said water was the most important issue, and it was getting to "crisis point" around the district.
Another strong theme throughout the evening was a perceived lack of community input into council decisions, and smaller communities such as Glenorchy feeling left out.
Mr Boult and council candidates Craig Ferguson, AJ Mason, and Grant Scannell were not in attendance.
