Outgoing Selwyn deputy mayor Malcolm Lyall explains what got him into local government 33 years ago: “Horse shit”. 

“Five hundred tonnes of it, mixed with chicken shit, and straw, composted in the open on Springs Road on a concrete pad.” 

Promising to find a solution for the foul-smelling eyesore in Prebbleton started his council journey and Lyall was among a swathe of departing councillors who looked back at the time on council during the final meeting [Sep 17] ahead of the election. 

Voting is underway for a new look Selwyn council, with at least eight new councillors to be elected. Lyall reflected on a time when the council had no real planning in place and was instead being driven by developers. 

“I called Rolleston the developer-driven fruitcake, because it was nebulous, it was in four different directions, and none of it connected to each other.” 

Borrowing $90m for the Selwyn Eastern Sewerage was one bold decision that paid off, he said. 

“We needed 189 houses a year to pay the interest to keep ahead of the debt curve, and well, papatūānuku gave us an earthquake, and the rest is history. 

“Leading with infrastructure has been the key to what we have done and making bold decisions.”

Lyall predicted council amalgamations “will rear it’s ugly head" within the next 10 years and Selwyn may end up a community board of the greater Canterbury council. 

Grant Miller, a councillor for 12 years, joked the councillors “have had a lot of differences of opinions, and my one biggest regret is you didn’t agree with me more often – but that’s what democracy is all about”. 

He acknowledged the organisation is driven by people who turn up every day wanting to make Selwyn a better place. 

“There is a tendency to want to rip down staff and an organisation when in fact I’ve never seen people more passionate about making Selwyn a better place.” 

He added: “There’s some things I haven’t been proud of, and some things I’ve said probably have hurt people that I never intended, but it was all driven out of a desire to see high-quality governance here.” 

Three-term councillor Bob Mugford had a tongue-in-cheek “thank you to my community for having the wisdom to vote me in”. 

He admitted at the start of his tenure “they handed me a computer and I didn’t know how to turn it on”. 

Once he got past that hurdle, he said was asked to accompany a staff member to look into a property easement. 

“We got there and here is this farmer standing across his gate with a shotgun, so we changed our mind.” 

Early in his first term, he was involved in a major vote, and “the community didn’t expect the way I voted”. 

“I had a red car, and when I got up in the morning, it was black. Someone had spray-painted the whole car because they weren’t that impressed with what I had done.” 

Debra Hasson opted for a different approach to her valedictory speech, compiled of song titles and lyrics, to bring the curtain down on her 30 years of service. 

Second term councillor Shane Epiha’s summed up his six years stating “we have faced challenges, celebrated milestones, and made tough decisions – some easy, many not, but all made with the best interest of our people at heart”. 

The catalyst for Nicole Reid’s journey onto council was “a simple problem to solve” of wanting a pedestrian crossing on Rolleston Drive. 

The crossing went in in 2015 and there are now traffic lights there, she said. 

The three-term councillor was proud to see the development of Foster Park, including the Selwyn Sports Centre. 

“I’m grateful and humbled to those who voted for me so that I have the honour to have sat here,” Reid said. 

Taumutu rūnanga’s representative, Megen McKay (Ngāi Tahu) said it has been an honour to be the first representative to the Selwyn District Council and hopes teh relationship continues. 

Those seeking re-election, Sophie McInnes, Elizabeth Mundt, Lydia Glidoon, and Sam Broughton also had an opportunity to speak. 

First-term councillor Phil Dean resigned in May. 

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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