Community centres and parks please

Rototuna resident Matthew Perry is a father of three active teenage boys who love to ride their mountain bikes and skate their longboards.

But with no local parks to do so, they must make the most of the footpaths around their home.

It is a concern for Perry, who has seen the Hamilton City Council spend millions on projects including the V8’s, and the Claudelands Arena in the five years he has lived in Hamilton.

He wants something for his kids to do and thinks Hamilton definitely needs facilities for our young people, and more community hubs.

Living in the East Ward, the closest skate park to their home is in Fairfield.

“You don’t leave your kids at the Fairfield skate park, you just don’t do it, it’s too dangerous,” he said.

With houses advancing so rapidly out his side of town, he has noticed a few spaces for possible community projects, which he himself is passionate about.

Perry runs a global radio network involved in community radio and disaster response radio in the non-Western world.

He fund raises through the church for projects overseas and  rents an office in the Chapel Hill Community Church in Rototuna, which is used by community groups, playgroups, drama and music classes.

“Rototuna’s going ahead and soon it’ll just be all shops, all commercial. It’s an ideal place for some sort of community facility.”

He wants to see spaces added to libraries where school kids can go and research assignments and complete their homework.

“That would be a great angle on a library if they had that, or had spaces for community involvement.

“There’s got to be room for innovation and a bit of spending that’s invested into the communities, families and young people.”

It is the basic things of a city he wants to see changed.

Pools, libraries and recreation areas, “the easy things”, he said.

He knows the council needs to fund the likes of roads, public transport, and recycling but hopes to see them working on something a bit more than that, without spending too much money.

“Those boring things are a no brainer,” he said.

He wants to see the council do their research and not just “spend the money and do their homework after.”

He hopes to see a bit of community leadership and public consultation with council decisions, but not by way of referendum.

“Referendum is a very expensive and drastic exercise.

“I resent the spending that the council does, I don’t trust them. I think they’ve lost the plot.”

He hopes to vote for a candidate or mayor who will advocate sticking to the basics and reducing debt.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous the amount of debt we have, I don’t mind if the council just keeps their head down, do the books and allows for community areas to be accessible.”

Perry has not yet had any candidates knock on his front door, but has seen a few signs out his side of town.

Before he votes, he wants to learn more about each candidate and although he will quite happily find this online, he believes it needs to be published in one of Hamilton’s newspapers so it is put in front of people to get them thinking.

He plans on attending the public meetings to find the candidate who is going to keep things simple before he votes on October 12.