Affordability And Gravel Priorities For Tasman Mayoral Candidate

Tuesday, 2 September 2025, 4:48 pm
Article: Max Frethey - Local Democracy Reporter

Richard Johns hopes to make rates more affordable for Tasman residents if he is elected mayor in October. 

Also running against Johns were incumbent mayor Tim King, Maxwell Clark, Timo Neubauer, and Richard Osmaston. 

The Riwaka-based retiree with a background in civil construction said he had been following the council for a few decades and had been “absolutely disgusted” by several council decisions over that time. 

Johns previously unsuccessfully contested the Moutere-Waimea Ward in 2019. 

But the catalyst to finally spur him to run for mayor this time around was reading reports of Tasman District Council and Waimea Irrigators Ltd – the two shareholders of the Waimea Community Dam – asking the Government to pay off a chunk of the project’s debt. 

He said that irrigators who bought water shares should stand by their decisions and that any financial relief should be for the sole benefit of ratepayers. 

“Because it’s ratepayers that are the ones that are suffering.” 

Easing the rates burden is Johns’ main priority, and he raised the idea of capping rates on properties, with inflationary pressures being covered by property’s rates increasing only when it was sold or significantly renovated. 

“While TDC go on about well-being and everything, are they really considering… well-being of those ratepayers that are going to be forced out of their houses or struggling to pay rates?” 

The district’s last three average rates increases have all been more than 8%. He said the council had done too many “vanity projects”. 

“And the dam would have to be the classic one of that it.” 

Johns has long opposed the dam, having previously protested the project outside the council building with other residents, and called for a judicial inquiry into the project. 

“It was really, really misguided, and that’s put so much pressure on maintenance and everything, to the stage that they had a policy this year of reactive maintenance.” 

He also singled out cycleways which had been installed around the district, according to “ideology” he claimed, and said their frequent layout changes were just a “continual money spend”. 

“There’s been so much wastage in all sorts of ways.” 

The cycleways installed in Richmond and Māpua were done under the Streets for People programme, which was almost entirely Government-funded. 

The programme utilised low-cost measures and employed flexibility to modify the changes after trialling the new layouts and weighing feedback from residents. 

Johns wanted to council to focus on “core” activities, such as extracting more gravel and sand from the district’s rivers.

He pointed to the sand present around the Motueka Bridge and suggested that if it had been removed, the recent flooding along the Motueka River wouldn’t have been as damaging. 

“The lack of river maintenance has exaggerated what would have been a reasonably handled weather event, but it’s turned into a bit of a disaster for a lot of people in the district.” 

The council has previously said that “an enormous amount” of gravel would have had to be extracted from Tasman’s rivers to have had “any noticeable benefit” during the recent floods, adding that the scale of extraction required would deepen river channels, worsen riverbank erosion, and lower the groundwater table. 

When asked if he thought he could beat incumbent mayor Tim King in the election, Johns highlighted low community satisfaction with the council. 

A recent residents' survey saw satisfaction rates plummet from 71% to 50%. “I think there’s going to be a big swing, whether it comes to me or whether it goes to somebody else.” 

-Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air

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