Wanaka’s relationship with its bigger neighbour was a hot topic during the Ignite Wanaka Chamber of Commerce meet-the-candidates event at the Lake Wanaka Centre yesterday, where about 120 people heard all 16 candidates standing for the Wanaka Community Board, Wanaka ward of the Queenstown Lakes District Council and the Queenstown Lakes mayoralty put their case forward.
Mayoral candidate Al Angus, of Kinloch, said Queenstown just needed to give money to the Wanaka community and let them get on with their own projects.
Mr Angus received hearty applause from the audience.
If Wanaka followed the same path Queenstown had taken on development, it would end up in the same sorry state, mayoral candidate Roger Tompkins said.
Lyal Cocks, the only candidate running for mayor who is based in Wanaka, presented himself as a man for the whole district, not just its individual communities.
Community board candidate Mike O’Connor changed tack slightly and told the audience Queenstown was Wanaka’s greatest asset and its successes and failures should help guide the future of Wanaka.
Each candidate was given two minutes to say why they should be elected.
All candidates exceeded two minutes except one.
All the candidates said the water quality of Lake Wanaka and the surrounding rivers and streams should be one of the most important issues for the next council.
Housing and development in Wanaka also needed to be high on the council’s agenda, they said.
During question time, Peter Marshall said Wanaka without the lake would be Ranfurly, so questioned why the council had done nothing to upgrade access to the lake for boat users.
Council candidate Jude Battson said if ratepayers’ money was being spent on upgrades, it would be nice to see some coming from the boat users, too.
Dave Kerr asked those who had already served on the council what they had they been doing during the past three years, particularly regarding the Mt Aspiring Rd upgrade and Wanaka Airport.
Cr Cocks said if he was dictator Mt Aspiring Rd would have been upgraded, but since we lived in a democracy and everyone in the Queenstown Lakes district got their say, everything took time.
Host Mike Regal ended the event with a joke about Milton and its attractiveness as a place to live.
