Ross Wallis has been voted in as Chair of the Raglan Community Board by his fellow board members at this week’s inaugural meeting in the Town Hall. He was nominated by Satnam Bains and seconded by former Chair Dennis Amoore. Chris Rayner was voted in for a second term as Deputy Chair, nominated by Dennis Amoore and seconded by Councillor Lisa Thomson.
All eight members of the community board were sworn-in and a meeting to discuss regular issues, and to take applications for the discretionary fund, was planned for 3rd December.
Warren Maher has been elected chair of Waikato Regional Council during their inaugural meeting held in Hamilton on Wednesday.
There was just one nomination, with second term councillor Maher (Thames-Coromandel) declared the chair.
Mich’eal Downard (Taupō-Rotorua) and Kataraina Hodge (Ngā Tai ki Uta) were nominated for the position of Deputy Chair and by a majority vote of nine to three, Cr Downard was elected deputy chair.
Both Chair and Deputy Chair are members of the Rates Control Team who have 7 of the 14 council positions and now that the Chair has a casting vote they also have complete control of the Council.
The Rates Control team have pledged to vote together as a team and were caught making several misleading statements during the election campaign. Without stating that they could actually remove Waikato Region Plan Change 1, which is designed to clean up Waikato and Waipa Rivers they made it clear they would oppose it.
During the campaign council issued a clarification against misinformation about Waikato Regional Plan Change 1 stating that it was not possible to stop the plan for legal reasons but the first act of the new Chairperson was to bring a report directing the chief executive to seek a two-to-three-month extension from the Environment Court to enable a new economic impact assessment to be prepared.
There was considerable debate before the motion was passed.
A public meeting about the proposed cell phone tower on Long St for this Saturday, 1 November has been postponed until further notice while more information is gathered. The proposed 2 Degrees cell phone tower will be 15 metres high which is almost double the size of the 9 metre towers put in by Spark and Vodafone by the Water Tower.
The new surf lifesaving season is about to kick off at Raglan Surf Lifesaving Club, with Junior Surf starting Sunday 3 November at 10am. The programme welcomes children aged 3–13 to learn surf safety, beach awareness, and ocean skills – all under the guidance of qualified lifeguards. Families are encouraged to join in, with opportunities for parents to help on and off the beach.
Registrations are now open at raglansurflifesaving.org.nz/members
Those aged 14+ keen to train as lifeguards can contact Cory Harvey at chiefinstructor@raglansurflifesaving.org.nz for free training and patrol opportunities.