Frequently Asked Questions — Lesley Immink (2024)

Frequently Asked Questions & What Am I Campaigning On?

You can find out more about my professional background here:

What Am I Campaigning On?

Safer Communities, Resilient Infrastructure and Equitable Community Services

Safer Communities - our communities want to feel safe - at home and at their place of business. I support a workable CCTV network across all our town centres, partnering with police and emergency services. With our district being vulnerable to natural and weather events, local community emergency plans need to be developed sooner, rather than later.
Resilient Infrastructure - we need to be smarter with our infrastructure assets to support our unique landscape and lifestyle. I commit to advocating Matatā Wastewater be the number 1 priority for Entity B (3 Waters reform) and a Second Bridge. With a growing population and new subdivisions, we need to push harder with NZTA for a second bridge - even if it means our community has to co-fund it.
Equitable Community Services - Our satellite towns feel there is an imbalance of equitable community services. I have a plan to improve this and community engagement between themselves and council. The plan involves $500k per year of the Long Term Plan for the community boards to tell us what their ‘priority need projects’ are. The following year a different community board shares their projects and so on….

Why should you vote for me?

When I look at my point of difference from other candidates, it is about:
a strong business background
confidence that my skills can add value to Council’s decision making
adopting a strong environmental approach towards sustainability in all aspects for the community
commitment to provide an open, transformative and democratic leadership style.

I plan to demonstrate courageous leadership. Someone who is not afraid to say no when the numbers don’t stack up, or say yes to ‘feel good projects’ if we can’t afford it. I have the determination to see projects through to completion and the confidence to admit a re-direction if necessary. I will do my best to lead the community and council into making best practise decisions, supported by good data insights and intelligence. I’ll ensure we have an aligned vision for the future and road map of how to get there.

What have you learned being a District Councillor?

Thank you to those in 2019, voted me in to represent Whakatāne-Ōhope ward and I’m pleased to have had the opportunity to serve the community as a district councillor. After serving the ‘councilllor apprenticeship’, I am now in a much better position to understand the bureaucracy and dynamics of local government. Aside from the four Standing committees meetings that all councillors attend, I’ve served and attended the following:

Committees and sub-committees:

Ordinary and Extraordinary council - Standing committee
Projects and Services - Standing committee
Organisation and Performance - Standing committee
Strategy and Policy - Standing committee (Deputy Chair)
Risk and Assurance
Whakatāne and Ōhope Community Board
Funding Allocation and Young Achievers (Chair)
Youth Council
Arts Whakatāne
Also attended numerous Rangatāiki, Murupara and Tāneatua-Waimana Community board meetings
Commercial Advisory Board (Public excluded meeting)
EBOP Joint Mayors and Regional Council meetings
EBOP Rangatāiki River Forum

I have and will continue to do my homework on all aspects of council and are confident that I am well informed on past, present and future plans for the district. When you blend this with my business, governance and corporate leadership background, I feel well prepared for the role of Mayor, Whakatāne District. SENSIBLE. STRATEGIC. SMART.

Snapshot - what are my views on? (not in priority order)

The below are my views and vision of how I see the Whakatāne District in the future.

Infrastructure

Roading and NZTA (Waka Kotahi) – the councils’ relationship with Waka Kotahi for district roading projects is crucial. I will be the most informed I can be about how this all works and ensure our district is not left behind ahead of wider regional roading commitments

Whakatāne 2nd Bridge – A new bridge is NOT a council piece of infrastructure but Waka Kotahi. While we meet the traffic volume requirements for a second access bridge into town, it is how do we get Waka Kotahi to recognise its safety and value to the town - both from tsunami threat, potential population growth and increase in economic activity. Our strategy should be to ‘hound’ Waka Kotahi and our MPs to move this up the priority list before an adversity necessitates the need.

Boat Harbour – A PGF (an original Provincial Growth Fund project applied for in 2018 - now known as Kanoa), Stage 1 Commercial Boat Harbour at Keepa Rd is NOT funded by rates. The council portion of approx $10 million is funded from the Harbour Board Fund with contributions from the Crown, Rāhui Lands Trust, and Ngāti Awa. I support this project and believe it will deliver new employment and training opportunities for the community. Stage 2 at a later time, may include a Recreational boat precinct.

Pedestrian and cycle bridge – while not an infrastructure priority, I believe that we need to connect the town to Coastlands with a foot and cycle bridge, wide enough for a small car and/or two golf carts to cross. OR, a ferry crossing transport operator. This initiative should happen sooner rather than later to give more confidence to potential hotel and retirement lifestyle village investors that we are serious about growing the district. It is also a ‘good quick win’ for locals who love the river environment and who want to share walking and cycling activities with their families by crossing to the beach.

Three Waters (Storm, Waste, Drinking) – My personal stance is that I don’t believe the governments 3 Waters proposal will deliver better water infrastructure/services for less or the same cost to residents. I’ve encouraged council to join the Communities 4 Local Democracy who is keen to offer an alternate view to government from LGNZ. However, if this is mandated, we need to be prepared to fight for what our communities deserve with the priority being Matatā waste and drinking water!

Equity of Community Services – this term there has been a conscious bias from councillors to make sure there are equity of services between the rural areas of the District and the Whakatāne-Ōhope ward. We will continue this good work to make sure our satellite communities feel valued and receive infrastructure and other considerations in the first instance.

Water Bottling Plants – I have concerns about the proposed Ōtakiri and Murupara Water Bottling Plants and believe that ownership if in partnership with overseas interests, should be determined by its contribution to the community and environmental well-being. These concerns are:

I’m not convinced that there will be anything like the number of jobs quoted that would be provided
I need to know more about the quality and volume of the water take from the aquifers although to appreciate the volume numbers they are talking about are significantly less than farming and horticulture irrigation take
The consent granted by BOPRC was on the basis that the it was an extension of the current business. I disagree with this and believe the local residents should have been ‘notified’ from the outset. There will be considerable impact among the residents in the this rural community
The question of who owns the water and that we need to have an export water bottling royalty charge. It is my belief that under Te Tiriti ō Waitangi - Article 2, that water (as a taonga) belongs to Māori. Government needs to step up and have the ‘hard discussion’ about water ownership, rights, allocation and value. Water is our ‘gold’ and we can share this with the world but commercial users need to pay for it!

Upgrade Whakatāne War Memorial Hall – while the earthquake assessment risk for the facility is low-medium for strengthening and not needing to be attended to until 2026, the fact that the hall is the emergency centre in case of major civil defense disaster event, we need to do this sooner rather than later. However, we should take into consideration the future needs of the facility, meaning conferences, arts and sports.

Retirement and Lifestyle accommodation options – retirement and lifestyle village options have been on the cards for years. We need to be more proactive in developing a range of options from Tiny Home Villages to Lifestyle and Retirement home options. I’d like to see us investigate perhaps Rugby Park being centred between Kopeopeo and town as a Lifestyle village, and Tiny Home Villages adjoining Whakatāne Holiday Park and in Edgecumbe. Joining town and Coastlands would make Coastlands a more attractive retirement lifestyle option for investors

Sports Precinct – for a District our size and number of ratepayers we have a large number of under-utilised sports facilities. I’d like to see us review our sports numbers future growth and potentially develop a new purpose multi-sport precinct, possibly at Awakeri or Edgecumbe

New Tourism Initiatives

Boutique Hotel – this is a classic example of egg and chicken. Do we need to be proactive and ‘build it and they will come’ or do we wait hoping people will come? I suggest we look for potential hotel developers and investors and adopt a proactive approach. The construction phase will create jobs, the operation of a hotel will create more jobs, and with effective marketing, we’ll attract new visitors to the region. If the hotel has conference facilities that can cater for 100-150 delegates, we’ll attract new business/conference visitors that will complement our existing coastal and outdoor recreational type of visitor thus growing visitor numbers. More visitors, more demand for retail and hospitality services.

EPIC, Retail and CBD – Whakatāne needs a District wide digital marketing strategy to maximise promoting what a great CBD and wider district retail and commercial offering we have. EPIC has been doing a great job in the past few years and support the business targeted rate to help keep the vibrancy of our main CBD.

Te Urewera & Natures Road – there are some exciting new sustainable initiatives that Ngāi Tūhoe have going forward. I love the idea of the Sustainable/Nature Road or Highway and see that this could be an incredible promotional marketing campaign like no other. Te Urewera as a Great Walk with new infrastructure, accommodation and Ngā Papakāinga (Maori living villages), combined with other District tourism initiatives is something I’m keen to help where I can

Whirinaki Te Pua-A-Tāne Conservation Park – There are no multi-day guided walks with private accommodation in the North Island like Milford Sound or Abel Tasman Great Walks. Whirinaki Te Pua-A-Tāne Conservation Park has the potential to be our back door ‘game changer’ in completing the tourism triangle destinations of Rotorua, Whakatāne and Murupara, and position Murupara as the “Te Anau” of the North Island. I strongly support and encourage iwi and/or private investors to develop several multi-day guided cultural and nature walks in the region

Cycle Trails and Mountain Bike Park – Mountain Biking is the new ‘golf for families’. Everyone can participate, at different levels and it has great health and social benefits. I am in favour of expanding developing our cycle trails and Mountain Bike Park but believe our water infrastructure has priority over this at the moment

Town Regeneration Plan & Marketing - We should leverage more off our highest sunshine, best beach and Supreme Town & City awards which are our point of difference. The town regeneration (PGF) project needs careful analysis of what we need, what difference will it make, can we afford it, should we afford it etc? Until BOPRC have settled on what the stop-bank river protection level might be, we should spend no funding on this until then.

New Arts Precinct – we have a vibrant and diverse creative arts community but more can be done. In consultation with the sector I propose at looking at a CBD arts precinct vision where we can historically and culturally represent our people and their stories along the waterfront and CBD area. One idea suggested to me has been to have our European and Pou (talking poles project) along the river front representing each of our seven iwi and their digital story. I’m keen to investigate this further and hope that it has been inclusive as part of the Town Regeneration Plan

Waste Management

Chlorination - I was fortunate to grow up in Kawerau with safe fresh drinking water and remember taking flouride tablets every morning which seems quite amusing now. We all deserve safe drinking water but with the rise in population, new germs and viruses, combined with ageing pipes and declining water treatment infrastructure, chlorine is the best cost effective option for the time being. Murupara being the current exception where their water supply is untreated, unless government intervention mandates it

Climate Change - I’m not a scientist but do believe we need to be doing more to mitigate climate change on a personal and industry level. In my discussions with locals there is confusion about sustainability, climate change, carbon emissions, shifting weather patterns etc. I’ll be ensuring that between District and Regional Councils, a community awareness and education programme is implemented so that more of us, can do more

Zero Landfill Waste 75% Goal 2030 - the recent changes in our plastic recycling status has been confusing for many in the community and in some cases as they can’t determine what is a number 1 or 2 plastic, has encouraged people to go back to putting all their waste in one bin. I’ve always been committed to our environmental outputs and have visited Innovative Waste Kaikōura and Raglan Recycling Centres to look at what they do in terms of recycling, re-purposing and reusing. Both these organisations divert 75% of potential landfill waste and I’d be keen to review our own practices to see how we can better align our services as a one stop shop. We currently have the Transfer Station, CReW (Community Resources Whakatane), Waste Zero Whakatane, Waste Not Want Not, a Time and Curtain Bank. These are some great initiatives but are disconnected that easily become a Circular System. I’ll be seeking improvement to our community education of not only waste management, but for us to put a line in the sand and aim for 75% by 2030 or sooner

Communication

Partnership with Iwi and Hapū - In our District we have seven iwi, all of whom have economic development initiatives of their own, be it tourism, farming, forestry or aqua-culture. The future of our community is intrinsically linked with iwi and I will advocate for more inclusive and supportive relationships to enable more employment and improved social outcomes

Staff to Community - a huge part of the Councils reputation is reliant on the relationship and interactions staff have with the public, with complaints about how the message was delivered being more of a frustration than the action it relates to. As a communicator, I will review not only the systems and processes we have in place, but ensure that council staff have the right representative ‘telling the story’, especially in situations where there is perceived frustration and conflict. The staff out in the community are our representatives and we need to give them the appropriate tools and training

Council to Community - So often you hear complaints of the public not being informed on projects or advised after the decision is made and asked what their opinion is then - when there is no opportunity to effect any change. A simple way of keeping the public informed of on-going community projects is to have monthly advertised updates in local media and on the council website. For example a bullet point list with a simple progress statement and/or a graphic visual board in the affected spot to remind the community of what is happening. I’m confident communication with the wider community can be greatly improved and which adds greater transparency to projects.

Council to Community Boards - while there is change with our wards, (now inclusive of Māori wards) our four community boards remain with the same representation. We need to improve our engagement with Community Boards so that we don’t lose our connection at the community cold-face.

Other:

Freedom Camping - I am opposed to enabling Freedom Camping in our District for vehicles that do-not have their own self-contained waste disposal systems. I find it ridiculous that council own a Holiday Park 200m from a Freedom Camping designated site where potential income is being compromised. There is an excellent new system called KiwiCamp using a pre-paid KiwiCash key which give entry into purpose built toilet and shower facilities. Whakatāne could easily implement these across the district, keeping the independent campers monitored and paying as they go. It would also be a great system to assist the Homeless Population as they could be issued with KiwiCash cards too.

Kawerau-Whakatāne-Opotiki Amalgamation - With our small populations, it seems inevitable to me that an amalgamation should occur. Whakatāne and Kawerau for government recording i.e. Regional Tourism Estimates, GDP, Commercial Accommodation statistics etc. are already combined and not able to be seperated out. I would be in favour of this discussion happening at a later date.