Support for mayor Ben Bell on the street in Gore

Thursday, 6 April 2023

Gore residents show support for Gore’s new mayor Ben Bell, and say the Gore District Council needed to sort out its issues and get on with running the district.

New Gore district mayor Ben Bell and council chief executive Stephen Parry, who has led the council for more than 20 years, will have a councillor acting as an intermediary between them after their working relationship broke down before Christmas.

It’s been a controversial six months for Bell, but Stuff reporter Rachael Kelly asked people in Gore’s Main Street on Friday what they thought of the situation, and found plenty of support for New Zealand’s youngest mayor.

Gore mayor Ben Bell and council chief executive Stephen Parry are not speaking.

As the rain poured down on Main St in Gore on Friday, some residents were keener to avoid questions about the controversy at the council rather than the weather and crossed the street instead of being asked about their opinions.

Jim Mathias of Gore said Stephen Parry was ‘’getting put in his place.’’

But of those who did speak to Stuff all showed support for Gore’s new mayor, and said the council needed to sort out its issues and get on with running the district.

Jim Mathias has lived in Gore for nine years and said it was time for Parry and Bell to ‘’sort it out somehow’’.

‘’Parry has had his own way for far too long. He’s getting put in his place.

“I think Parry should take a back seat. He’s had his own way for so long,’’ he said.

Patricia Robinson lives at Tapanui in West Otago, a 36km drive from Gore.

She said Bell was doing a good job, and said the council was getting too tied up with “wokeness’’.

“I think probably Gore needs a bit of a bomb like Tim Shadbolt was years and years ago for Invercargill,’’ she said.

Tarns, of Mataura, said it was time for a change when Bell was voted in.

“I think he’s just been ousted by the old school fellas, and it just doesn’t feel right. It’s the old establishment trying to get rid of the young ones who are trying to make an improvement,’’ she said.

Eric Eaves said he thought “people had wanted change, and maybe that change is coming to the front’’.

“He wouldn’t have been voted in if he wasn’t supported and it’s just old school crap coming in trying to oust the young guy, the new blood that is trying to make a change.

“Give the guy a break, cos they just seem to have come down on him right from the start. He was voted in, let him do his thing.’’

Eric Eaves, of Gore, said people had wanted change, and he wanted Bell to be given a chance.

He liked Bell’s idea of ‘’getting back to basics’’ and reining in council spending.

Robyn Sage of Waikaia said she doesn’t think Bell has been given an opportunity to do a good job yet.

“I will give him the benefit of the doubt for that. There are some people in council still that maybe shouldn’t have been. Things are different when you have change and some people aren’t going to like it,’’ he said.

Doug Burrowes had been living in Gore for 18 months, so he didn't know the history behind the issues at the council, he said.

But Bell had come in with an agenda and ‘’some of the old fogies that have been there since Adam was a cowboy … it’s a bit of new blood and I’ll be honest, I wish him well,’’ he said.

“I hope he’s got a group of people around him who are supporting him and advising him.’’

Robyn Sage lives at Waikaia, a 40 minute from Gore but works daily in the town.

She said if Bell and Parry had ‘’started by listening a bit more at the beginning things might be in a better position now.’’

“They need to sort it out,’’ she said.

She couldn’t comment on whether Bell was doing a good job because she had not been involved in anything he was doing.

“I’m really not sure that he’s had an opportunity to do a good job yet,’’ she said.