Deputy mayor ponders growth

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Waimakariri's new deputy mayor, Neville Atkinson, is looking forward to working with the new...
Waimakariri's new deputy mayor, Neville Atkinson, is looking forward to working with the new council.
"Is minimal growth a bad thing?'' asks Neville Atkinson.

The new Waimakariri deputy mayor says while he has always supported growth, the prospect of climate change, water quality challenges and the geographical constraints for the expansion of Kaiapoi means now might be the time to start planning for minimal growth.

"And we have to keep asking ourselves, `is that a bad thing?' and I'm not sure that it is.

"Moving forward, there will be a lot of challenges with climate change, water and government regulations and I want to see us lobbying for equity in tax and rates.''

Mr Atkinson says the council will need to make some big decisions over drinking water, stormwater, sewage, waste, climate change and Plan Change 7.

"They are big issues and they are not going to be easy to tackle.''

In December last year, Mr Atkinson voted against the Waimakariri Zone Committee's zone implementation plan addendum because he felt it did not go far enough or fast enough, and that was backed by feedback from his constituents.

While he understands the concerns of farmers and the potential impact on their livelihoods, he says it is no different from the impacts on business owners in Kaiapoi and Rangiora.

"The service station owner that struggles to survive will have to change the way he does things.

"Everyone who lives in this district has to take responsibility for what they do. Everybody is going to have to pay.

"I would suggest that the retailers in Williams Street have been in the position farmers are now in for years, so we are all in this together and there needs to be empathy for everybody.''

Despite the constraints on its expansion, Kaiapoi has a lot going for it, including the river, the developments along the river's edge, Trousselot Park and the red-zone developments, Mr Atkinson says.

"I've always described Kaiapoi as the Queenstown of Christchurch and people have laughed at me for that, but I absolutely believe that the catalyst is there now.''

To meet its challenges, Mr Atkinson says the new council will need unity going forward.

"No achievement is made on your own. It takes about two meeting to work that out when you're a new councillor.''

Mr Atkinson has been a councillor for 15 years and served a term on the Kaiapoi Community Board before that.

He is just the second Kaiapoi councillor to hold the position of deputy mayor in the 30-year history of the Waimakariri District Council, following Dick Wylie in 1989.