Nominations for Tāmaki Makaurau’s local election candidates closed on Friday, with 12 people confirmed to be standing for the Waiheke Local Board.

Chairwoman Cath Handley is standing for re-election, as is her deputy Kylee Matthews and board members Robin Tucker and former board chairman Paul Walden.

Bob Upchurch is retiring after six years on the local board. When Bob was elected in 2016 he was the highest polling local board candidate netting 143 more votes than the second highest polling candidate, Paul Walden. 

Bob resigned from his post as president of the Waiheke Golf Club to take the role, and was primarily focused on sorting out parking and traffic issues at Mātiatia and sorting out a formal reserve management plan for the Rangihoua Reserve and Onetangi Sports Park that would preserve the wetlands there and end legal issues around the renewing the golf club’s lease that have been ongoing since it expired in 1990.

It was an issue on which he often had to side-line himself due to a conflict of interest.

The local board’s Rangihoua and Onetangi Sports Park Reserve Management Plan Committee recently advanced a draft management plan to public consultations but Bob says progress has been slow on both issues. 

Bob says he’s looking forward to enjoying the quiet life, after going straight onto the local board just a year after he retired from teaching. • Paul Mitchell 

Full story in this week’s Gulf News… Out Now!!!

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