It’s just over a week until voting packs for the local elections start arriving in mailboxes around the Ashburton District.

Aside from the mayoral race, nine councillors will be elected to represent three wards, as well as five Methven Community Board Members and six Braided Rivers Community Trust members.

Ashburton District Council Chief Executive Hamish Riach said people looking for more information about the candidates have several options.

“There will be information about candidates in the voting packs, but voters can also go to our voteashburton.nz website now and browse through the candidate profiles to easily see who is standing in their ward.”

The profiles include contact details for the candidates as well.

Mr Riach said there were several meet the candidates events being organised and he encouraged voters to go along and do their due diligence before ticking the box on their voting papers.

The first event is on this Sunday at the Ashburton Event Centre, at 2pm, and people can find more details on the main page of voteashburton.nz. An event has also been organised at the Mt Hutt Memorial Hall in Methven on 13 September, at 7pm.

For those wishing to dig in a bit deeper, Policy.nz (hosted by The Spinoff) has given all candidates standing in local elections the chance to share their thoughts on various areas of policy.  Not all candidates have contributed, but for those who have, it’s a good way to see what they think about topics such as rates, our local economy and climate change.

Mr Riach said it was also timely for council this week to thank three long-serving members of the Methven Community Board for their contributions over many years.

Dan McLaughlin, Sonia McAlpine and Ron Smith attended their last community board meeting on Monday – the three are not seeking re-election.

Mr McLaughlin was elected in 2010 and has been chair since 2016, Mrs McAlpine was elected in 2013 and has been deputy since 2016 and Mr Smith was completing his second term after being elected in 2016.

“Their contribution to the board and the Methven community is greatly appreciated. They have been great ambassadors for Methven,” Mr Riach said.

Voting in all the local elections starts on 16 September and closes at noon on Saturday 8 October.  Find out more at voteashburton.nz