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.

Here’s Mal­colm Aitken run­ning in Onslow West­ern Ward. 

  1. What should be the city council’s role in help­ing home­less peo­ple and beg­gars? Ask home­less peo­ple about it. Allow­ing wet hous­es. Sup­port­ing liv­ing wage. Sup­port­ing famil­ly vio­lence and drug and alco­hol ser­vices where pos­si­ble.
  2. What would you do to make Welling­ton more cycle and pedes­tri­an friend­ly? Park­ing strat­e­gy to reduce con­ges­tion. More cycle lanes and cycle stands. Encour­age pub­lic dis­cus­sion involv­ing cyclists, motorists, walk­ers, talk­ing togeth­er about each oth­ers’ con­cerns.
  3. How do you think traf­fic flow to the hos­pi­tal and air­port should be improved? Light rail can be revis­it­ed. May be much more afford­able if it goes via New­town to Kil­birnie and does­n’t require a sec­ond tun­nel.
  4. What are your views on the sug­ges­tion Welling­ton needs to be “more than just Weta and Gov­ern­ment” – what do you think are Wellington’s strengths? It is much more than those. Strengths include impres­sive local busi­ness­es, a nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and cityscape of star­tling beau­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty galore.
  5. What will YOU do to get more invest­ment, busi­ness­es, and busi­ness con­fi­dence in Welling­ton? Make it much eas­i­er for busi­ness when they deal with coun­cil (one stop shop). Exempt low infra­struc­ture sub­ur­ban busi­ness­es from busi­ness rates.
  6. What does Welling­ton need more of, and what does Welling­ton need less of? More Coun­cil­lors with orig­i­nal well-thought out ideas, more plan­ning for the “big one”, less hos­til­i­ty to dif­fer­ent view­points around coun­cil table.
  7. What would your city coun­cil pro­vide for chil­dren and young peo­ple? Bet­ter hous­ing stan­dards via rental WOF. Safer mod­ern parks that are bet­ter main­tained. More child-friend­ly poli­cies for coun­cil staff with chil­dren.
  8. What steps would you take to encour­age civic engage­ment? Local Gov­ern­ment Week with chil­dren being May­or for a Day. Pub­lic­i­ty to tell Welling­to­ni­ans what WCC does and how it works..
  9. Tell us about your per­son­al earth­quake plan / What’s unusu­al about your earth­quake kit? Pret­ty stan­dard.
  10. Why should we vote for you? My exten­sive knowl­edge of the local gov­ern­ment sec­tor, bun­dles of ener­gy and abil­i­ty to build con­sen­sus. I’ve can­vassed res­i­dents’ opin­ions for months.
  11. Where can we find out more about what you stand for? http://www.vote..co.nz/mal­col­maitken ‚http://www.malcolmaitken.co.nz/.