Citizens’ Assn captures City Council, 11-8

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33664, 14 October 1974, Page 2

Citizens’ Assn captures City Council, 11-8

Two former councillors return to the Christchurch City Council chamber after an absence of three years, and five — possibly six — new councillors were chosen in the election on Saturday. Only one sitting councillor has not been returned.

The former councillors are both of the Citizens’ Associa- 1 tion—Mr P. N. G. Blaxall (North ward) and Mr B. J. Britten (South ward).

Four other Citizens’ men are certain new members of the council —Messrs N. Dodge and J. F. Burn (North ward), N. G. Hattaway (West ward), and W. J. A. Brittenden (East ward). The Citizens’ Association will also provide another new member of the council from the East ward, but thej counting of special votes will! decide whether it is Mr R.| H. Arbuckle or Mr A. E. Ansell. The only other possibility of a new face on the council would be if the young Labour candidate, Miss V. S. Buck, overhauls her party colleague, Cr W. Massey, when the special votes in the Pegasus ward are counted. The defeated sitting member is Cr A. F. Orme < (Labour), who found that his nomination in the Citizens’- i dominated West ward was too great an uphill climb. Citizens’ candidates failed : to top the poll in only one i ward and had the highestscoring “also ran” in two ( others. With all sitting councillors 1 other than Cr Orme being re-|: turned, there were no major ■ upsets, but there were quite a few surprises. 1 i High vote One was the exceptionally , high vote for Mr Britten ' (Citizens’) in the South ward. ,

He topped the poll with 6062' votes in what was regarded i as a Labour stronghold. He was followed by three sitting Labour councillors — Crs M. ' McG. Clark and N. M. W. Sutherland, and Sir Robert! Macfarlane — and the fourth b Labour candidate, Mr H. A. , Clark, was next on the list, i As a former councillor and ! former chairman of the council’s traffic committee, Mr Britten was given a chancei of stopping a Labour march in the ward, but very few Iwould have expected him to ■do it so resoundingly. His association’s plan for Centennial Park, an election plank aimed at the South ward, < was not enough to enable the other Citizens’ candidates to make much*impression on the Labour Party’s grip there. Another surprise was the j low polling of Cr D. F. Caygill (Labour) in the North ( ward. At one stage in the . evening Cr Caygill, who was ( the Acting Mayor on one oc- ( casion, looked in peril of los- ( ing his seat. In the end he ( was returned with three Citi- j zens candidates — Messrs ( Blaxall, Burn, and Dodge. In J 1971, Mr Blaxall held his seat ( on election night figures until t the counting of special votes ( meant relegation to the alsoirans. Mr Dodge is a member , of the Christchurch Drainage ( Board and his activities here , over the last three years . might account for his topping f the poll in this ward. The West ward — a three- 1 seat ward — was notable < only for the supremacy of , the Citizens candidates. Two • sitting councillors, Messrs H. ' L. Garrett and M. R. Carter, < polled more than 6000 votes ) each, and Mr Hattaway took (

the third seat for the asso- t ciation with 5889 votes. Cr j Orme, however — the next | best-polling candidate — could take only 2446 votes \ and lost his seat. g t Unexpeeled An unexpected development in the Pegasus ward was the tussle that eventuated between two Labour candidates—Cr Massey, who I for the last three years has /been chairman of the council’s public utilities commit1 Tee. and Miss Buck, an 18j year-old and the party’s 2 youngest candidate. * The remarkable support for 1 Miss Buck was hard to exi plain, but it almost cost Cr Massey his seat. On election * night figures Cr Massey has , a 65-vote lead over Miss » Buck and should gain more ’: support from special votes. '' Polling in this ward was

'close between the top five candidates, the four successful ones all being sitting members of the council — Cr P. D. Dunbar (Citizens), who was second-highest policing candidate, Cr M. D. BatThelor (top-polling candidate), and Crs P. W. Anderison and Massey. I With three-quarters of the returns in, it looked like Labour would take all four seats in Pegasus and Cr Dunbar had a substantial leeway to make up. But as the last returns came to light, Cr Dunbar’s total moved rapidly and he finished with almost 300 votes over Cr Anderson. Main surprise The East ward was the one in which there was .the biggest surprise. The nature of the ward had made forecasting difficult, but to most it had seemed that it would either be evenly divided or be a Labour holding by three to one. It went the other way, Cr B. Alderdice being the only Labour success. Although he was returned by a safe margin, the other Labour candidates trailed behind the Citizens Cr P. .1. R. Skellerup, who was the highest-polling candidate in 1971 before there was ward voting, topped the poll in the East ward by a substantial margin. Mr Brittenden, a former high school headmaster, was second on the list in East with 6095 votes, more than 700 ahead of Cr Aldredice. The other two Citizens’ candidates, Messrs Ansell and Arbuckle, see-sawed in and out of the fourth berth until the final returns which left Mr Arbuckle with a 44-vote lead. Two Labour candidates who had been given better than even chances of gaining a seat in this ward were the

(Mayor’s secretary (Mr J. G. ■ Power) and the Labour ' Party’s chief spokesman on i the Drainage Board (Mr J. F. i Davidson). Both were several hundred votes behind the last of the Citizens candidates. ! Values Party candidates I failed to make much impression in any of the wards, the average return for them being 1100 votes apiece. NORTH WARD i N. Dodge (C) .. 5728 P. N. G. Blaxall (C) .. 5668 •D. F. Caygill (L) .. .. 5284 ! J. F. Burn (C) .. .. 5259 (Elected) W. R. Hawkey (C) .. 4781 M. G. R. Drayion (L) .. 4741 D. I. Jackson (Li .. 3854 M. C. T. Marshall (L) .. 3097 Mrs H. M. Wright (V) .. 1137 C. D. Wilkes (V) .. 1025 Informal 183 SOUTH WARD B. J. Britten (Cl .. 6062 •Mrs M. McG. Clark .L) . 5978 •Sir Robert Macfarlane (L) 5563 •Mrs N. M. W. Sutherland (L) 5033 (Elected) H. A. Clark (Ll .. .. 4823 D. A Doyle (C) .. 4658 H. Tutengaehe (C) .. .. 4640 Mrs C. E. Crawford (C) .. 4349 P. J. Heal (V) .. .. 1340 Informal .. 186 WEST WARD •Mrs H. L. Garrett (C) .. 6106 •M. R. Carter <C> .. .. 6069 N. G. Hattaway (C) .. 5889 (Elected) •A. F. Orme <L> .. .. 2446 J. P. Gavigan (L) . . .. 2199 L. A. Mahoney (L) .. 1911 J. C. Jack (V) .. 974 Informal 102 EAST WARD •P. J. R. Skellerup <C) .. 6668 W. J. A. Brittenden (C) .. 6095 •B. Aldcrdice (L) .. 5379 R. H. Arbuckle (Cl .. .. 4964 (Elected I : A. E. Ansell (C) .. .. 4920 J. G. Power (L) .. .. 4772 J. F. Davidson (L) .. .. 4414 R. J. Todd (L) .. 4201 Mrs T. A. T. Te PukeWatson (I) .. 1176 A. Lea (V)) 1166 L. F. Taylor (V) .. ..973 Informal 205 PEGASUS WARD •Mrs M. D. Batchelor (L) .. 5715 *P. D. Dunbar (C) .. 5557 •P. W. Anderson (L) .. 52611 *W. Massey (L) .. 5227 (Elected) Miss V. S. Buck (L) .. 5162 A. S. Cockburn (C) .. .. 3801 i Mrs C. J. Evans (C) .. 3624 A. D. Hogue (C) .. 3007 R. S. Clarkson (V) ..1114 A. C. Easterbrook (I) .. 544 Informal 170