by Terry Sheldrake Councillor GDC

Short report this week as life continues with Covid ruling how all business can/cannot work — your council is no different, hence we continue to meet only via Zoom. Covid has also hit many staff members along with their families so the additional pressure will not go away for some time.

Although there is no formal council meeting this week we are in regular Zoom and electronic contact so that we keep in touch with Nedine our CEO and Mayor Rehette re communication and developments across many issues.

As recently reported, our future council representation has been presented to the Local Government Commission and we now wait for their official response. At the upcoming October election we will have five Maori seats as this was passed unanimously last year. The major discussion and focus under consideration is that of our direct rural representation. Will we end up with two general rural ward councillors and six city councillors, rather than a general ward of eight councillors?

Interesting to hear early rumours hinting who may be considering standing for our council come the 8th of October. This will potentially see the biggest change ever to your communities' representation around the Gisborne District Council table. If you are considering standing to represent this wonderful community, good luck.

Other meetings held for councillors have included Tairawhiti future development strategy workshops, along with meeting Trust Tairawhiti representatives re their SOI (Statement of intent) 2022-2023.

Recent extreme weather brings back distant memories of Cyclone Bola now some 30 years ago and has once again put our Civil Defence Emergency team into full action with significant flood damage reported around Uawa and right across Tairawhiti. Our Civil Defence team is capably led by a strong management team further supported by a significant volunteer base. It is at times such as this that we are lucky to have such dedication and we thank them all for their ongoing contributions to this work.

A meeting was held between the pump track promoters (Tairawhiti Adventure Trust) and concerned immediately located residents at a recent council Zoom meeting. This was in regard to the position of the new track situated on the park. Concerns over issues such as parking and noise were discussed.

Post this meeting there have been ongoing voices both ways; yet as with many decisions the council has to take, ultimately some will be happy and some contrary. The project is now back on track!

The Government is currently accepting submissions re pokie machines; this closes on April 28. Councillors will be receiving more information soon on this subject via a draft document.

Our new Kiwa Pools complex is progressing well. Developments of this scale are significant and it is a credit to all involved with this Apollo-led project that it is going so well in these Covid times.

I wish to pass on condolences to Sir Wira Gardiner's whanau; many years ago I had the privilege to work with Hekia and Wira on a family business proposal.