Westland Mayor Pledges To Help Needy Ratepayers

Tuesday, 21 October 2025, 8:14 pm
Article: Lois Williams - Local Democracy Reporter

October 19, 2025

Westland mayor Helen Lash says trying to help needy ratepayers and keeping them better informed will be top priorities for her council, over the next three years. 

Mrs Lash won a second term as mayor by a wafer-thin majority in last week’s elections, beating her main rival Jacquie Grant by just eight votes. She says she has taken on board the criticisms of Ms Grant’s supporters about unaffordable rates and alleged secrecy over council dealings. 

“It would be foolish not to - the vote was very split, and we need to bring all those people to the table“ 

Rates and water reform - the hottest topics during the campaign, were the two big challenges now facing the council, Ms Lash said. 

“As I said during the campaign, we could have done a much better job getting information out to the public about these issues and I should have taken time out to do it. But I was head-down, arse-up, doing stuff – which is me.” 

That would now be changing because the council had just taken on a governance and communications officer, Neve Martin, who would be focused on keeping the community better informed about council matters, Mrs Lash said. 

But some things would remain confidential, including the Mayors, Chairs and Iwi Forum negotiations with the Government over a West Coast Regional Deal, for the potential return of tourism levies and mining royalties to help pay for water infrastructure. 

Ms Grant had criticised the meetings as “secret squirrel but that was unwarranted, Mrs Lash said .“

“You can’t go public with things that are still under negotiation. And people need to remember that when they vote for their mayor and councillors they are entrusting them with the job of making sound decisions on their behalf. “ 

In her mayoral campaigning, Jacquie Grant repeatedly highlighted the plight of elderly Westland homeowners trying to pay soaring rates bills and still afford to eat and keep warm. And the mayor says she has taken that on board as well. She had been talking to church leaders in South Westland about their concerns for people struggling to stay afloat and thinking about what the Council could do to help. 

“We have to make sure we don’t have peoplefalling by the wayside. We’ve got to get our heads around the needs and the shortfalls and then we can go out and advocate for them. It’s not council’s role to do that, as a social service, but they are members of our community, and where we can help, I think we need to do it. “ 

Church sources told her many elderly doing it tough were too proud to come and ask for a rates rebate, and others didn’t know about the [Goverment] scheme. 

“It’s all very well putting stuff on our council Facebook page, but a lot of those peopledon’t have the internet, and they sit there and don’t say boo, they just suffer. We have to find a way to help those people … make our systems accessible and bring them into the fold,” Mrs Lash said. 

The newly-elected Westland District Councillors were meeting for the first time this morning, picking up their laptops and being briefed on the council’s Code of Conduct, the Mayor said.

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