Down but NOT OUT

Time to park-up WestWards in the garage beside the old Mustang for another three years. The upside is, I might now get to drive the old girl on the odd weekend, something I haven’t done for over 12 months. 
It’s now been two weeks since WestWards fell short of getting a seat on the Waitakere Ranges Local Board and it’s fair to say there’s been some in-depth discussions amongst the team and our closest supporters. We increased our vote and improved our overall position on the ladder. This despite a couple of the team being new and having less name recognition, which shows we have a sizeable core following. All the team, candidates and the great helpers behind the scene, thank everyone who voted for us. It is surprising that after an energized election throughout West Auckland, with more candidate standing per electorate than in other parts of Auckland and a gazillion billboards the result this year could be described as “same old same old”. Future West holds the Board, WestWards is in opposition and we have the same two Councillors. I have learnt a lot and have improvements to make, but we are all agreed no change to the goal WestWards works for; fair governance and equality of all the objectives held in the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Act. We stand for economic, social and environmental well-being for all people living in our communities. We will fight council wastage and inefficiencies and demand rates are spent on simply getting cord jobs done.
It is disappointing that Penny Hulse lost the position of Deputy Mayor because she may be perceived as close to Len Brown. She worked hard on behalf of Auckland in part to make up for Len Brown being an ineffectual Mayor and then to lose her job because she did it well, is unfair. The big political leason I got this time, is that in politics the facts come in a distant 2nd compared to the perceptions. Anyway it’s a long weekend, hope it’s fine, good for a bit of rest and relaxation. Then it’s back into it next week, I have a number of political questions asked of me by people before the election ended, which I was too busy to answer. I have promised to answer these questions in blogs.