Mayor Cameron gets 3 more years.

Ruapehu returns Mayor Cameron with strong mandate

Ruapehu has voted to return Mayor Don Cameron to office for another three years with a strong mandate.

Voter turnout was very close to 2013 at 46.8% (3,195 plus 308 votes in transit made up of 125 votes from the Taumarunui office, 147 from the Ohakune office and 36 special votes.)

Progressive results show Mayor Cameron received 1,454 votes with his closest rival Jacques Windell receiving 647.

The other two mayoral candidates Peter Till and Ben Goddard received 559 and 446 votes respectively.

The number of votes in Transit will mean that some of the Ward positions will not be confirmed until the votes in transit are counted and confirmed.

Progressive results for the Taumarunui Ward (5 vacancies) indicate that the top three candidates are likely to be elected being; Kim Wheeler 1,097, Karen Ngatai 1,049 and Adie Doyle 872 votes.

The remaining were; Graeme Cosford 688, Jacques Windell 640, Mike Gibbs 628, Rhonda Wood 594, Elaine Wheeler 569 and Peter Till 567.

Progressive results for National Park Ward (1 vacancy) are Murray Wilson 183 and Peter Pehi 131.

Results for Waimarino-Waiouru Ward (4 vacancies) are too close to call with the number of votes in transit.

Progressive results are Ben Goddard 728, Rabbit Nottage 696, Cynthia Dowsett 596, Vivienne Hoeta 560 and Lucy Conway 469.

Mayor Cameron said he was very pleased and happy to have another three years to continue Council's work programme in what will be a very exciting time for the District and Region.

I would like to thank everyone who voted and I look forward to continuing to serve you and continuing the work Council has been undertaking on your behalf, he said.

Ruapehu is on the cusp of really taking off and this is being felt throughout all sectors of the District.

As I talked with people over the election period the overwhelming feedback was that they wanted to see Council keep doing what we are doing and where possible to speed it up, said Mayor Cameron.

A lot of District's claim to punch above their weight' but in Ruapehu we really do and have the track record to back it up.

Ruapehu has been providing leadership in regional economic development under Accelerate25, road funding, local government sector work, local township revitalization, new approaches to engagement with Iwi and other challenging areas which has not gone unnoticed at national level.

Over the last few weeks alone Council has been; awarded a Chapman Tripp Project Award with local Iwi for its Wai Group consultation process on water resource consents, a Qualmark Service Award for its Ohakune i-SITE, the hosting rights to the 2017 National i-SITE conference, a finalist in the Keep NZ Beautiful Awards for its new Waiouru public toilets and received a special mention from Audit NZ for how we have achieved an unqualified audit opinion for our Annual Report.

Individually these are all fantastic successes and together they point to an organization and a District that is heading in the right direction.

Mayor Cameron noted however that despite these successes and Ruapehu's positive trend Council recognized that we still have a long way to go to get to where we want the District to be.

One of these is dealing with the issues created by The Lines Company and its charging model which is recognized as causing significant social issues and acting as a hand brake' on investment and growth.

I'm looking forward to getting back to the business as usual' of taking Ruapehu forward, said Mayor Cameron.

A summary of results can be found on ruapehudc.govt.nz

See: http://www.electionz.com/2016lgeresults/ELT36RU16_results.pdf

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