Seven try for community board

Kelly van Gaalen

A late surge of interest has seen seven people put their hands up to be the new Kaikohe representative on the Kaikohe-Hokianga Community Board.

Just last week alarm bells were ringing at the Far North District Council after no nominations had been received a few days out from the closing date.

However, by the time nominations closed at noon on Tuesday, seven candidates had put themselves forward.

They are Fiona Bannister, Debbie Beadle, Harko Brown, Mike Edmonds, Matt King, Shaun Reilly and Phyllis Rintoul.

Many are already well known in the Mid North. Harko Brown, for example, is a Maori games exponent who has previously served on the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Community Board; Matt King is a businessman who contested the Northland candidacy for the National Party; Shaun Reilly is a long-time campaigner on Kaikohe issues whose granddaughter, Kelly van Gaalen, was the previous community board rep; and Phyllis Rintoul is the wife of businessman and Focus NZ founder Ken Rintoul.

A candidates' meeting is planned for the evening of October 6 in the Senior Citizens' Hall on Tawanui Rd.

A postal ballot will start on October 6, when voting forms are delivered to electors in the Kaikohe subdivision. Voting will close at noon on October 28.

Forms can be returned by post or dropped off at the council offices on Memorial Ave. Anyone who wants to vote but is not yet enrolled has until October 27, the day before voting closes.

The vacancy arose after the resignation of Mrs van Gaalen.

Mrs van Gaalen polled the highest of any candidate in the Kaikohe-Hokianga ward in the 2013 elections, but resigned in July after being jailed for two years on a charge of possession of cannabis for supply.