Today we had lunch with Nigel who is probably best known as the holder of the Kapiti seat on the Greater Wellington Regional Council from 2007 to 2016 when a concerted campaign by the then Otaki councilor on the KCDC, Penny Gaylor, unseated him.

He says he wasn’t unhappy about that result as nine years in the role was enough, although he was and still is unimpressed by his successor. His sentiments are more positive towards the third polling candidate in that contest, Peter Bollmann, who he hopes will stand again.

Since last year his main attention, together with his son, has been on developing the KC News website to make it the premier source of news about the Kapiti Coast.

Since 2010 its presence and reach has increased substantially from less than 1,000 visitors a month to about 60,000 monthly visitors now.  He expects at the present rate of growth that the monthly visitor statistic will be into six figures some time next year.  They have just appointed a sales manager to boost awareness among advertisers and says that KC News already has more local content than either the local freebie newspapers, the Kapiti Observer and the Kapiti News.

We also talked a lot about local politics, naturally, and share very similar views about the mayor, the council, and local issues.  Being also a Waikanae resident (in fact a neighbour of Iride McCloy), he has the same interest we have in protecting what is great about Waikanae, improving what can be made better, and eliminating what is undesirable.

The KC News website