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PEGASUS POST Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi<br />
Tuesday <strong>March</strong> <strong>21</strong> <strong>2017</strong> 5<br />
plans to rejuvenate New Brighton<br />
You were the manager of Merivale<br />
Mall from 1999 to 2004 and<br />
instrumental in setting up the Re:Start<br />
mall. What skills have you picked up<br />
that you might see yourself using in<br />
this role?<br />
My management style at Merivale was<br />
quite different, I got heavily involved<br />
with the businesses. I created a lot of<br />
activity, promotions and over a fourand-a-half-year<br />
period I doubled the<br />
centre’s turnover and I increased the<br />
foot traffic by 32 per cent. They thought<br />
I’d be the right person to manage the<br />
centre because I was a retailer myself.<br />
Just getting down on the ground,<br />
working with the retailers. They’d<br />
developed a very negative view of the<br />
world and that was self-fulfilling so their<br />
turnovers weren’t increasing, so it was<br />
about working with them to change<br />
their thinking, change the message that<br />
they were putting across the counter<br />
and working just as hard as they were<br />
to try and boost the business. Over the<br />
four-and-a-half-years, we grew to be like<br />
a big family.<br />
Do you see yourself as quite a handson<br />
person?<br />
Absolutely, and same with Re:Start,<br />
that was very grassroots. Hard work<br />
to get that project off the ground, even<br />
harder to make it successful. Most<br />
people think it was successful straight<br />
away, but it was very hard to get the<br />
confidence back of people here in<br />
Christchurch to come back into the city.<br />
You must be very proud of that<br />
achievement?<br />
Very proud, but you don’t do it alone,<br />
there was a group of us that set out to do<br />
the project. I came up with the idea but<br />
the idea’s only one thing – unless you’ve<br />
got people to help you realise it, it’s just<br />
an idea.<br />
So, do you have any special links to<br />
New Brighton?<br />
I lived here for a couple of years about<br />
12 years ago. As a kid, we used to come<br />
out here to the beach. My brothers and<br />
I used to have a routine on hot days:<br />
We’d go to Jellie Park in the morning,<br />
swim there till about 11am, bus out to<br />
Brighton, go for a swim then back to<br />
Jellie Park. And, of course, as a family<br />
we used to come out here on a Saturday.<br />
I see you’re a former Burnside High<br />
School student. Are you Christchurch<br />
born and bred?<br />
Not quite. I was born in Gore and<br />
moved to Invercargill with my family<br />
when I was four, then moved here when<br />
I was 11. We came up in 1974, when the<br />
Commonwealth Games were on.<br />
Were you at school with John Key?<br />
Not in the same class but the same<br />
year. Don’t remember him at all. I did<br />
play at school assemblies in the band<br />
back then, though, and when we got the<br />
cheque from John Key for Re:Start, I said<br />
we were at the same school, same year.<br />
He said he thought the name rang a<br />
bell. He remembered me from the band<br />
playing.<br />
Small world. So where do you call<br />
home now and who does the cooking?<br />
Just out of central Christchurch. I’ve<br />
been there 10 years and live there with<br />
my wife Denise. It’s a second marriage<br />
so she has a couple of kids (they’ve<br />
left home) and I’ve a got a 17-year-old<br />
daughter at Christchurch Girls’ High.<br />
We share the cooking, I usually do the<br />
meat and my wife does the veges – divvy<br />
up the responsibilities.<br />
You’ve held quite a few communitybased<br />
roles and currently serve on<br />
boards and trusts around the city.<br />
Where does this interest in community<br />
come from?<br />
A friend of mine once said: ‘You just<br />
like getting involved,’ and he’s probably<br />
right.<br />
Must have been a heck of a shock<br />
when you weren’t re-elected to the city<br />
council?<br />
Yes and no. I could have stood in<br />
central and would have won that<br />
without any problem at all. I chose to<br />
stand in that (Heathcote) Ward. I have<br />
my own personal reasons for why I did<br />
that and I knew it would be a trickier job<br />
getting re-elected, but I was willing to<br />
take that risk. I’d done a lot of work out<br />
there you see, and I don’t shy away from<br />
challenges. I’d make the same decision<br />
again.<br />
Do you see yourself standing for<br />
council in the future?<br />
Look, I never say never. You never<br />
know in this life.<br />
NEW WAVE: Paul Lonsdale in his punk<br />
days.<br />
Autumn and Winter Styles<br />
Fashion Labels<br />
Outlet Store<br />
Sorelli<br />
Fashion Labels Outlet<br />
Unit 4, Archerfield Business Park<br />
Senior Place, Bromley, Christchurch<br />
PHONE 389 2338 email: sorelli@vodafone.co.nz<br />
HOURS:<br />
Mon - Fri 9.30am - 5pm<br />
Sat 10am - 3pm<br />
Join the<br />
conversation<br />
Have your say on how the<br />
Council plans to fund the city’s<br />
projects. Come and talk to us<br />
at your local Have Your Say<br />
event, or go online and make<br />
a submission.<br />
27 <strong>March</strong>, 3.30pm-5pm<br />
St Chad’s Anglican Church<br />
1 Carnavon Street, Linwood<br />
Christchurch City<br />
Draft Annual Plan<br />
<strong>2017</strong><br />
2018<br />
Consultation<br />
20 <strong>March</strong>–28 April <strong>2017</strong><br />
Christchurch Ōtautahi<br />
#cccplan<br />
To find out more visit ccc.govt.nz/AnnualPlan
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