Four gold stars for councillor attendance
Two Ashburton District councillors have missed a quarter of council meetings in the past year - one who has only been a councillor since May.
Meanwhile, four have maintained perfect attendance.
According to council attendance records there have been 23 meetings between the new council being sworn in on October 27 last year, and its last meeting on October 31.
Councillors Carolyn Cameron, Russell Ellis, Richard Wilson, and Lynette Lovett have 100% attendance records to date this term.
Councillor Leen Braam missed the first four meetings of the term following the election as he was overseas visiting family in the Netherlands.
He then missed two other meetings since to have a 75% attendance rate.
Braam said that other absences have been down to suffering from long Covid.
“It’s made it a bit harder for me and I’m still getting out of it”.
Councillor Rob Mackle was only elected in May this year and has a 64% attendance rate.
He won the Western Ward by-election following Rodger Letham’s death in December and was sworn in at the May 17 meeting.
Mackle has missed four of 11 meetings, which he said was for “various reasons”.
Ashburton mayor Neil Brown has missed three meetings, an 84% attendance rate.
Deputy mayor Liz McMillan and first-term councillors Phil Hooper and Tony Todd have missed one meeting each.
An apology was recorded for all of the councillors' absences.
Under the council’s standing orders, the mayor, or acting chair, must invite apologies at the start of each meeting, including apologies for lateness or early departure.
The meeting can accept or decline any apologies.
The acceptance of a member’s apology constitutes a grant of ‘leave of absence’ for the meeting.
Members may be recorded as absent on council business if their absence is for that reason.
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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61.7% Summer
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36.7% Winter
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1.6% Other - I'll share below
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
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