Two new faces for Cromwell Community Board

The Cromwell Community Board has a 50:50 mix of old and new faces following the local body elections.

Provisional results show incumbents Anna Harrison and Wally Sanford have been re-elected alongside newcomers Rebecca Anderson and Mike Casey. Harrison was the top poller with 1711 votes, followed by Anderson on 1533, Sanford on 1371 and Casey on 1344. This is based on approximately 85 per cent of the vote being counted, with final voting numbers due on Thursday. 

Four candidates are elected to the Cromwell Community Board to sit alongside three appointed councillors.  

Community board newcomers Anderson and Casey had been in the community earlier in the day when they got the news. Anderson had been setting up for the Cromwell Fire Brigade’s Honours Night while Casey had run the half marathon – a good way to take your mind off things while awaiting results. 

Anderson said she was looking forward to the term. 

“I think we've got such an exciting new board, two incumbents that are there, which is great because that continuity flows on and Mike will bring such an energy to the board as well.” 

She sent a big “thank you” to the voters. 

“Thank you and I’m going to do my best by them,” she said. 

“Thanks for the support and next election, let's get the numbers up over 45 per cent.”    

Anderson said as a community board member she planned to be open and honest, available to the community and have a pragmatic approach. 

"I'm passionate about where I live and making sure it's sustainable for the future. There's been so much that's happened with growth in our ward, let's keep that momentum going but let's make it feasible and workable for our community.” 

Casey said he was “thrilled” with the result – not just for him but the other successful candidates. 

“It’s my first ever tun at anything political and my first attempt was a win which was nice,” he said. 

“My dreams had come true, it was the community board for Cromwell that I’d wished was there.” 

He said he was looking forward to learning from Sanford and Harrison and building on the work they had already done, while also working with Anderson who he calls “a rockstar” who is “in it for the right reasons”. 

“I’m really proud to be standing next to her quite honestly because she seems to really care about our town.” 

Casey said he wanted to look at the Cromwell mall improvement and bring his own knowledge to the board. 

“The mall is not servicing our growing population in Cromwell and we deserve better than what we’ve got and also the potential for far better sports facilities is something I'm super interested in as well. 

“My own personal flavour I can bring to it of course is around energy and looking at whether we can save the ratepayer some money with simple projects like putting solar on our swimming pool.” 

Casey said he was also eager to support mayor Tamah Alley’s vision, and work closely with the neighbouring Wānaka-Upper Clutha community board.