Current Hawke's Bay Regional Council chairman, Rex Graham has announced he will re-stand in this year's elections. Photo / File
Hawke's Bay Regional Council chairman Rex Graham has announced he will be re-standing in this year's election.
The second-term councillor was appointed as chairman in the 2016 elections and says it has been a "privilege" being the Chair of the council which has had the "courage to 'step up' to
many of the really hard issues".
"There is, of course, a cost to this and we have had to lift rates to action our agenda and everyone on our team feels for those who found this difficult as they were already struggling to make ends meet.
"The bottom line is however that without these extra resources, we cannot address the huge legacy negligence that has occurred in our environment over the last 100 years.
"Most of our wetlands have gone and our streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries are still very polluted and we have only just begun the journey the fix these."
