We’ve pro­vid­ed a set of ques­tions for the may­oral and coun­cil­lor can­di­dates to answer. First 25 words to an answer get post­ed. Check our 2013 Elec­tion cov­er­age for all respons­es as they come in.

Judith Aiken is a can­di­date for the Welling­ton Region­al Coun­cil and the Cap­i­tal and Coast Dis­trict Health Board

1.What should be the city council’s role in help­ing home­less peo­ple and beg­gars?

Com­pas­sion­ate­ly pro­vid­ing appro­pri­ate and afford­able hous­ing, expe­ri­enced social work­ers to help them access finan­cial and oth­er enti­tle­ments, and ensure they are not harassed

2.What would you do to make Welling­ton more cycle and pedes­tri­an friend­ly?

Have old­er cit­i­zens test-ride and walk roads to ensure they are haz­ard-free – if it works for them, it will work for every­one, includ­ing chil­dren

3. How do you think traf­fic flow to the hos­pi­tal and air­port should be improved?

Reg­u­late sin­gle-occu­pant cars off key roads; imple­ment bus rapid tran­sit; NZTA-DHBs-coun­cils  review impact of loca­tion of ter­tiary and oth­er health ser­vices on trans­port demand

4. Does Welling­ton need to be more than just Weta and Gov­ern­ment – what are Wellington’s strengths?

Poten­tial­ly NZ’s knowl­edge-based research, eval­u­a­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion hub: max­imis­ing val­ue of savvy, eclec­tic, healthy, eco-sen­si­tive old­er pop­u­la­tion; big invest­ment in young, cre­ative, high…

5. What will I do to get more invest­ment, busi­ness­es and busi­ness con­fi­dence in Welling­ton?

Elim­i­nate avoid­able dis­eases, poor school­ing and bad urban design that, in parts of Porirua, Welling­ton, the Hutt, severe­ly dam­age well­be­ing and lim­it region­al pro­duc­tive capac­i­ty

6. What does Welling­ton need more of and what does Welling­ton need less of?

More: busi­ness and insti­tu­tions gen­er­ate more effec­tive incen­tives to keep young people’s cre­ative, high tech, well-trained, eco-sen­si­tive tech­ni­cal and trade skills here. Less…

7. What would your city [region­al] coun­cil pro­vide for chil­dren and young peo­ple?

Heav­i­ly sub­sidised local arrange­ments for low income house­holds (includ­ing iso­lat­ed elder­ly) to have  inter­net-con­nect­ed com­put­ers; tuition and gear for cre­ative and sports skills; child…

8.What steps would you take to encour­age civic engage­ment?

Build the Children’s Cit­i­zen­ship Edu­ca­tion trust cen­tre (the “Kidzho­tel”  pro­pos­al cur­rent­ly before the Welling­ton City Coun­cil) on Site 9 the water­front  or near­by

9. My per­son­al earth­quake plan

Reg­u­lar­ly replace water, bat­ter­ies, books; refresh fam­i­ly plan; find a place where drop cov­er and hold is an acces­si­ble and real­is­tic option; keep jan­dals handy

10.Why should we vote for you?

I can be trust­ed to active­ly pro­tect and enhance our nat­ur­al and social envi­ron­ments, sup­port col­lab­o­ra­tive, coop­er­a­tive and law­ful gov­er­nance, and be fis­cal­ly pru­dent.

11. Where can we find out more about what you stand for?

Can­di­date meet­ings; my leaflets; email­ing or phon­ing to talk about your con­cerns; my Face­book; Vote.Co.NZ web­site; can­di­date book­let with your vot­ing papers