Wakatipu Black ice tragedy interrupts council campaign plans

31/08/2016

A dawn slide on black ice near Cromwell means that new QLDC candidate Terri Anderson has found herself a bit slow off the mark to join the campaigning for councillor.

Terri was making her weekly drive down to her job with Ministry for Primary Industries before dawn earlier this month, when just out of Cromwell she suddenly lost control of her car on black ice. The slide ended with her hitting an oncoming vehicle and spinning into the rock wall.

Luckily no one in the other vehicle was hurt but Terri was flown to Dunedin hospital with a fractured C7 and sternum, concussion and internal injuries. Tragically, her old Chilean rescue dog Scruffy, her constant companion for 10 years, was killed by the impact.

While recovering in hospital Terri was looking into the upcoming election and the issues Queenstown is facing and saw that there was a need for people in her demographic to be better represented.

“I actually had to jump on facebook from hospital and ask my friends if they agreed and would nominate me. Luckily they were happy to and my partner took the forms in for me on the last day.”

Terri maintains that she is still running for council, just a bit slow off the mark! She has a lot of experience working in the UK and Chile in managing communication for government and private projects. Her approach is a need for better transparency and open communication; fairness to ratepayers; and driving delivery of a strong, cohesive vision for the future of the Wakatipu.

“I was raised in Queenstown and after twenty years away came home to raise my family. It’s a place like no other in the world, but we do share a lot of the challenges and we can look to other places for what works and doesn’t with issues like affordability, traffic and sustainability. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel but we do need to have drive. Firstly, we need to have a clear vision on how we want it to be for our whole community, our families and our children.

“Everyone I talk to is in agreement that there is a need for a voice like mine at the table to ask the hard questions and get answers; to make sure people are heard and to keep our community at the heart of what we do.

“We have an amazing population of people who have chosen to make the Wakatipu their home. We can tap into that resource and come up with creative and simple solutions to the issues we are facing. We need to be listened to, because we all really care about this place and its future.”

Tell Terri what you think on https://facebook.com/ourQLDC.

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