Guru Back, But With 5 New Reforming Councillors

Progress results in the Kapiti local election show sitting Mayor K Gurunathan is back.

Kapiti’s sitting Mayor K Gurunathan wants to keep the job

And the youngest-ever Councillor, climate campaigner Sophie Handford, of Paekakariki, has been elected — with four other new and progressive councillors.

Two of the new guard — Gwynn Compton and Martin Halliday — opposed Gurunathan for the Mayoralty.

Robb McCann is a Labour candidate ( the first on the Council) and a former contender for the Otaki seat in Parliament.

Former Otaki Labour candidate, Rob McCann, in now on the KCDC

Thre results are bad news for the sitting councillors who voted for massive cuts in the libraries’ book budget.

McCann, Handford, Compton, Halliday and Randall all promised to move to immediately to restore the libraries’ book budget.

The detailed progress results are:

Mayor: K Gurunathan

Angela Buswell (District wide)
Gywnn Compton (District wide)
Jackie Elliott (District wide)
Janet Holborow (District wide)
Rob McCann (District wide)
James Cootes (OtakI)
Jocelyn Prvarov (Waikanae)
Martin Halliday (Paraparaumu)
Bernie Randall (Paraparaumu)
Sophie Hanford (Paekākāriki)

Sophie will shake things up

Sophie Handford (18) is a national leader of the School Strike 4 Climate campaign.

She says: ‘Our overarching demand is that the New Zealand Government does everything in its power to limit warming to no more than 1.5 degrees because that’s the known threshold for livable future on this planet.

We then have five demands that sit under that:

Parliament declare a climate emergency
All parties support and pass an ambitious Zero Carbon Act
The Government ceases all exploration and extradition of fossil fuels
The Government invests in building a renewable and regenerative economy now
The Government gives practical effect to its responsibilities throughout the Pacific

Return to Home Page

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

The invasion of Poland by Germany, known in Poland as the September campaign (Kampania wrześniowa) or the 1939 defensive war (Wojna obronna 1939 roku), and in Germany as the Poland campaign (Polenfeldzug), marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviets invaded Poland on 17 September. The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty.

No doubt Sophie will have closing the airport foremost in her agenda.It seems we have a climate emergency and flying anywhere contributes to this.

Well, well, well. I love how Sophie Handford has been devoted most of this article. As only a single person in Council, I wouldn’t be surprised if she finds it hard to push through her agenda. Time will tell if Council is a young person’s world too.

Kāpiti and Coast Independent

2 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply