More local body opinion

I'm actually quite pleased that 18-year-old Hayley Wain has got the job as a Wellington City Councillor - and a role on the Tawa Community Board. However, it has emerged that there was some approaches made by councillors before the election - along these lines:

Ngaire Best, a (now former) councillor, rang Hayley Wain and requested why she hadn't been told that she was standing for council. Both live in the same town of Tawa. The point was then made to Hayley that other councillors in her ward would endorse her if she stood for the Tawa Community Board only, rather then for council as well. The suggestion was also made that perhaps she could stand for council once she has got a degree, and is a little older, with a bit more life experience. Another words, please withdraw your nomination.

The motive behind this move was that some councillors were to lose their job due to the fact that the current council is smaller and the fewer candidates that stood for council, the more chance incumbents had of retaining their job.

Hayley refused to meet with the councillors in her ward. Now she is on the Council and the Tawa Community Board, while two of the three concillors in her ward have gone. Ngaire has lost both jobs - to Ms Wain, a woman half her age.

Mrs Best was pictured in a local community paper just after the provisional results had been announced. She was not impressed. She looked like she was about to bite the reporter's head off for taking her picture. Not only did she lose her jobs, her role as a bit of a commentator/columnist in local rags, she lost her free drinks with Kerry, her carpark in town, and now has to pay $4.00 an hour to park her car should she choose to shop in Wellington. Just like the rest of us, of course.

She still has her reputation as the councillor who spent the most on travel allowances, but has now been knocked off by a person who is now the youngest councillor in the country - and she's better looking. We`ll see if her ideology is matched with her politics.

Kerry will probably find the current council will be harder to handle than the last one.