The column today is primarily for Cromwell folk. 

By now you should have received your voting papers for the by-election for the Cromwell Community Board. I’m going to give you four very good reasons to grab them now, make your choice and get them in.

 Seven of your fellow citizens have shown the courage to offer themselves to the role. If people don’t bother voting, well, that’s just not very respectful to that bravery is it?

The by-election has come about because not enough people put their hands up during the main vote. I’ve said it before but it bears saying again, the Cromwell board is the most powerful community board in the country. But the future of community boards is not assured and changes are coming to how local government operates. I’ll be blunt; if Cromwell doesn’t show it actually cares about having local decisions made locally, one day it may wake up and find Wellington has taken that away from it. While nothing can be done about October 2022 now, a clear signal that Cromwell people care needs to be made and the way you - as one person - can do that is by voting.

It’s going to take ten minutes of your life to vote. Seriously, ten minutes to participate in local democracy. Think Ukraine and think how fortunate we are. Then do the right thing.

The decisions of the board will impact on your day-to-day life. You almost certainly don’t get to have a say in the members of the board of directors of your power company, lines company, phone company, etc, but you do in this. Why would you not take that opportunity? 

If you want to know more about the people you are getting to choose from, there is candidates meeting at the Presbyterian Church at 7pm on Monday night (January 30). 

You can also watch it live-streamed at www.cromchurch.co.nz. 

But if you can’t make that, open the envelope, see what they have to say, tick a box, put it back in the envelope and post it or drop it in to the Service Centre (by the library). 

Voting closes February 17.