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