Waipā District Council and the Facebook comments

Saturday, 6 June 2026

Since comments reopened on the Waipā District Council Facebook page, many have not been complimentary.

Andrew Johnstone is a Waikato man with a farming background.

OPINION: A friend recently described the comment threads on Facebook as a cesspit, and she’s not wrong. An unending parade of trolls, bots, and the otherwise deranged has made useful public discussion all but impossible, which is why the Waipā District Council turned off comments on its Facebook page on May 3, 2024.

The council cited abuse, unfair criticism of staff, and the spread of misinformation as the reasons and, frankly, it was a bit of a relief. The whole thing had become so toxic it made me despair for the future of humanity.

So for 20 months and 21 days, the Waipā District Council Facebook page was a haven of peace.

Corcoran Rd, Te Pahu, was slammed when a culvert failed in a storm, forcing the evacuation of some residents.

That all changed on Saturday, February 14. With a cyclone on the way, the council turned on the comments section to facilitate the flow of information. That was a good thing, considering the circumstances.

Apart from some welcome rain, here in the eastern Waipā the cyclone passed by without any undue drama. It was a different story for those living out in the far west of the district. Pirongia was hammered, and by Sunday morning the council’s Facebook page was filled with images of the devastation. But if you thought this might be a time of empathetic solidarity, you’d be wrong.

One commenter was upset at the sight of all the “woke road cones” that had been put out to warn motorists about washed-out sections of roads and damaged bridges. Many more reckoned the “woke state of emergency” was all a bit overblown and wondered how much it was going to cost ratepayers. It hasn’t got any better since then.

Communication is a strength for Waipā Mayor Mike Pettit, Andrew Johnstone writes.

The new Waipā Mayor, Mike Pettit, is an inveterate communicator who posted daily reels from the Pirongia frontlines. It was helpful and fostered a sense of community, but the response to his reels has since descended into a tug of war between those who appreciate the communication and those who don’t.

I spent a couple of hours with Mike before the election and came away with the impression of a likeable guy who was big on rhetoric but thin on detail. I didn’t think he was mayoral material, but any thoughts I had about who would win were put to rest when I called in at the Cambridge Menz Shed a couple of weeks before the election. Mike had called in the day before and the place was abuzz. He was the man, and he was going to sort everything.

While his opponents were more thoughtful and thorough, they lacked his ability to connect with people, and that’s why he won.

News of a plan to save Cambridge’s water tower - and the $2.5m price tag - started debate.

He campaigned strongly on financial responsibility, a nice slogan that’s easy to throw about but much harder to actualise, and reality hit home when an average rates increase of 10.7% was proposed for the 2026/27 period on May 8.

While it was an improvement on the 15.5% rise that marked the 2025/26 period, it was a far cry from the 2% to 4.5% average increases seen between 1989 and 2023. If Facebook is any indication, people weren’t happy — which might explain why, a few days later, Mayor Mike turned his attention to Global Contracting Solutions.

The company behind the proposed Te Awamutu Waste-to-Energy Plant owes the council fees tied to the consent process, but as council problems go, it feels less like a defining issue than a useful deflection. Bigger issues include the looming local government amalgamation deadline, bedding in the new Waikato Waters entity, securing a third bridge for Cambridge, and the council’s own reorganisation plan.

If Facebook wasn’t happy with the rates announcement, it was even less happy with the news that the Leaning Tower of Cambridge was going to be saved. Built in 1902, the historic water tower had become an earthquake risk and, for the last 12 years, the subject of much debate: to demolish or not to demolish. The initial restoration cost of $6 million was too much to justify, but a recently revised costing of $2.5 million made all the difference. The majority of the 288 commenters disagreed with the council's decision, arguing that the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Given the town’s reputation for heritage, saving the tower is the right thing to do, but it is never going to look quite right. Thanks to some dubious planning, a retirement facility has been allowed to sprawl right up to the very edge of the tower, and the result is an uncomfortable clash of architectural styles.

If it were sitting on its own in parkland, the tower’s Victorian civic style would have made a pleasing picture. However, being set against the bland, utilitarian architecture of Resthaven has pretty much ruined any chance of the tower becoming the tourist drawcard it might have been.

Hamilton City Councillor and Cambridge resident Andrew Bydder seems to have become the media’s go-to voice on Cambridge matters, and his opinions on the tower were widely reported. Given his history of conspiracy-minded and often abusive public commentary, he makes an awkward spokesperson for the town — as awkward, in his own way, as the uneasy juxtaposition of the water tower and Resthaven.

News that the expressway extension is going ahead was a rare moment of light on the council’s Facebook site, but it was quickly subsumed by a post about recycling bins. Some are getting it wrong, and contaminated bins are costing ratepayers money. The upshot: if you continue to infringe, you might lose your bin.

“So if you take the bin away, do you take the cost of recycling off the rates bill..?” asked Ian, a theme that expanded into: “If a household chooses not to use the recycling service what is the reduction on the rates?” before descending into: “You forgot to tell everyone you take the recycling to the same place you take the garbage to — don’t know why you left that little bit out but just for the record — take note of that fact!!!”

I remain dubious about Mayor Mike, but his efforts to improve communication between council and community are commendable. Even so, one gets the feeling that if the council announced that fairy dust was going to fall from the sky tomorrow, the response would be: “Fairy dust is woke,” “Who is paying for all this fairy dust?” and “The council cares about fairy dust more than it cares about us.”

Local democracy needs scrutiny, argument, and criticism, but Facebook is offering precious little of that. I liked it better when the comments were turned off.