Leadership of new city ‘trivialised’

Press, 8 March 1989, Page 7

Leadership of new city ‘trivialised’

The important issue of leadership in the new city of Christchurch is being trivialised, according to a Christchurch City councillor, Cr David Close. Cr Close, who will seek the Labour nomination for the mayoralty, criticised recent news media coverage of the campaign for the mayoralty. The real issue is the sort of leadership the new enlarged City would require, he said. “A city of 290,000 will need special qualities in a mayor.” He or she should have to be “big enough” to see the city as a whole and to help all the different parts and personalities to work constructively together. Cr Close said while putting emphasis on the unity of the city, the mayor would also have to make sure that no part of the enlarged city was neglected. “We all know that Sir Hamish Hay and Mrs Margaret Murray have bickered and sniped at each other in the past,” he said. Their marriage of political convenience was predictable and was irrelevant to the issues facing the city, Cr Close said. Speculation about the impending baby of the Labour Party frontrunner, but undeclared Mayoralty candidate, Cr Vicki Buck, was also irrelevant, said Cr Close. Proposals for a system of community committees that gave the public more input meant the mayor must be ready to listen to any group that believed it had been left out of the process. “We can’t afford a mayor, now or in the future, who is negative and parochial. We also need a mayor who faces up to the fact that some parts of Christchurch have been neglected.” Paying lip service to co-operation with neighbourhood groups was not enough. People knew when they had been neglected and they would look for a mayor who was sensitive to their needs, Cr Close said.