Diane Calvert a long term resident of Khandallah has announced her candidacy for this year’s Wellington City Council elections in the Onslow-Western Ward. The Ward stretches from Makara, through to Karori and ends in Broadmeadows.

Diane Calvert has recently been involved in setting up and coordinating the Khandallah Residents group which came together last year after Council proposed an intensive form of medium density housing across Khandallah, Karori, Island Bay and Newlands.  This group has been successful in getting Council to engage better with the community on the proposal and also getting a suburb’s character to be considered. She has also recently been instrumental in raising awareness of the proposed Hutt Rd transport changes in adjacent suburbs.

“Through working with my local community and other communities ,effected by how Council engages on significant matters, I have realised we can do so much better. We need to bring a stronger voice from the community to Council much earlier on. And if the community can be involved sooner, then we can harness their expertise, stop the re-work and get real progress at a quicker space. An example of this will be the redundant Teachers College in Karori where the local community definitely needs to be at the heart of any deliberations very early on.”

Diane Calvert knows she will bring a collaborative work approach and more robust processes to Council decision making. After extensive senior leadership experience across both the public and private sectors, she understands what it takes to get an organisation to make fundamental improvements.

“Over the next few months I’m looking forward to hearing more from people across the Onslow-Western suburbs on how I may help and what else we should be doing to improve this great little city of ours.”

You can contact Diane Calvert on 029 9718944 or email diane@dianecalvert.nz