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Aksel Bech is standing as a mayoral candidate for the Waikato District Council in this year’s local elections.
For rates’ sake, your vote for me gives you voice, choice and control over things that matter.
Rates are now the largest contributor to the Consumer Price Index and the cost-of-living crisis most families are feeling. Restoring affordability is a key driver for me to stand for Mayor of Waikato District Council.
I am asking for a vote to end three years of the current mayor’s debt blowout from $178.7 million to a projected $347 million and nearly doubling numbers of senior staff with $150,000 salaries.
It is not affordable, and your voice, the community voice, has been lost.
As a WDC councillor in 2016-2022 (and previous deputy mayor), my proven council and
extensive business experience in dairy-related manufacturing and exporting will lead us to a better, more affordable future.
Born and raised in Denmark, I have lived in the Waikato for over 25 years, where my wife Susan and I have raised our three kids here in the south of the Waikato District. Family is at the heart of the things that matter to me, and right now, many families in the Waikato are doing it tough.
Here’s what I’ll do with your vote.
- Lower costs to ratepayers by efficient shared services with other local councils that do the same thing, getting ahead of coming government-driven amalgamation reforms and rate caps.
- Review senior staffing numbers that ballooned under the current mayor, with total full-time staff numbers up from 387 to 450 in just one term. That’s an extra $12.2 million dollars in wage costs compared to three years ago.
- Clarity and focus on core services — but also pushing back on central government’s unfunded mandates so they also don’t add unnecessary cost to rate payers.
I will introduce citizens’ assemblies so all voices, from towns and heartland rural communities, are heard alongside strong community boards and committees.
That will mean your input is heard as decisions are shaped, rather than the rush of deadline-driven rubber-stamping consultation that’s always too late for real changes with transparency and accountability then built in.
