Glenorchy resident and Shaping Our Future executive officer John Glover has announced he will run for mayor of Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) at this year’s local body elections in October.

John made the announcement, the first of its kind for this election, “in response to the many enquiries I’ve received around my intentions for the upcoming election”, he said.

John has previously stood unsuccessfully for the QLDC in 2013, 2019, and in a by-election in 2023.

John said relationships between QLDC and its key stakeholders “are broken”. 

“There needs to be a ‘hard reset’ to change that, restore community confidence and return the balance of power back to communities via their elected representatives,” he said.

“I will campaign to restore openness and trust, and hope to partner with candidates who also seek to restore a functioning democracy in this district.”

John’s proposed policies include inviting a “crown observer” to investigate and report on QLDC’s management of risk, its governance and financial probity around the Shotover Wastewater treatment plant, the Lakeview development, Queenstown’s proposed new civic building Project Manawa, and Queenstown’s arterial road construction.

He said he would establish a working group of Upper Clutha community stakeholders “to identify changes that should be made to support ‘one district’ council policies and operations”.

He also said he would ensure that all council workshops would be public and live-streamed online unless there were exceptional reasons for excluding the public; amend standing orders to remove the discretion of the mayor to require in-person attendance to speak at public forums; provide procedural changes around the use of a casting vote, and include Notice of Councillor Motions and “any other business” on council agendas “to encourage councillors to actively set the direction of QLDC”.

John would undertake a review of how QLDC should store and publish information, he said, “in order to enable speedier and fuller compliance with information requests from councillors and the public”; establish a quasi-independent Information Office to assist those requesting information and monitor the fullness of responses to requests.

He also proposed a standalone review of QLDC’s significance and engagement policy “so councillors can readily establish, on the community’s behalf, issues where consultation is expected and how that should be undertaken”.

Finally, he proposed that any new civic building for Queenstown be located in the Frankton area to make it more accessible to residents of the Upper Clutha, Arrowtown, Shotover & Jacks Point/Hanley Farm.

“Trust is something that is earned, and we don’t need another expensive consultants’ report to place a spin on uncomfortable realities: that’s so symptomatic of the problem,” he said.

“We just need to make the necessary changes. Success will be when the community has our back, rather than being on our back.”

Local body elections will take place from September 22, 2025.

PHOTO: Supplied