We offered to pub­lish the answers from any can­did­ates in the loc­al body elec­tions and Mike Mel­lor who is stand­ing in the East­ern Ward has stepped up.

1. You have 30 seconds to con­vince someone to come to Wel­ling­ton. What’s your pitch?

A small and per­fectly-formed walk­able cap­it­al city – arts, cul­ture, cuisine, sport, nature, sea, beaches…
2. How do you think traffic flow to the hos­pit­al and air­port could be improved?
 
Now: bus pri­or­ity with walk­ing and cyc­ling; future: light rail.
3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
Make it pub­lic.
 
4. What plans have do you have to improve recycling/composting facil­it­ies?
 
Encour­age ini­ti­at­ives like Tar­get Sus­tain­ab­il­ity http://www.targetsustainability.co.nz/ and Ter­raN­ova http://terranova.org.nz/, both in Christ­ch­urch; increase land­fill charges so that recyc­ling makes eco­nom­ic sense (and keep on top of illeg­al dump­ing).
5. What is your policy on street alco­hol­ics?
 
Wet houses, not indis­crim­in­ate liquor bans.
6. Do you sup­port ped­es­tri­an­isa­tion of the Golden Mile? Why/Why not?
 
With pub­lic trans­port and lim­ited access for ser­vi­cing, yes. The Golden Mile is the region’s busiest pub­lic trans­port route – and light rail and ped­es­tri­ans mix per­fectly.
7. What’s the last loc­al mar­ket you went to? What did you buy?
 
In Duned­in – does Quilter­’s Book­shop count?
8. Describe your bicycle, or your favour­ite bus route?
 
24 Miramar Heights, described by a vis­it­or as the most scen­ic bus route in the world.
9. When did you last use the lib­rary, a com­munity centre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­ity?
Lib­rary: today; com­munity centre: last week­end.
 
10. Would you wel­come a cent­ral gov­ern­ment driv­en “super-city” amal­gam­a­tion of loc­al author­it­ies?  If not, why not?
 
No – major and costly dis­rup­tion for little (if any) bene­fit.
11. Do you think the coun­cil has a role in fos­ter­ing com­munity web­sites? If so, how? 
 
Yes, by using its con­sid­er­able buy­ing power to allow com­munit­ies to piggy-back on its IT facil­it­ies.
 
12. Where do you stand on water privat­isa­tion, and why?
 
No – a pub­lic good.
13. What city over­seas inspires your vis­ion for Wel­ling­ton? How?
 
Wel­ling­ton is its own inspir­a­tion – but Lyon, Mel­bourne and San Fran­cisco inspire, too.
14. Is the concept of demo­crat­ic rep­res­ent­a­tion import­ant to you?  How so?
 
Abso­lutely – no ques­tion.
15. What do you think about com­munity gar­dens on pub­lic land?
 
Good idea.