I’ve been on a journey.

What a clichéd bit of nonsense – I just felt like saying it (a bit like my “I hate bikes” article).

Back in February, I met a bunch of people through a good friend of mine, who were deeply troubled by the state of our council – and, subsequently, city. It wasn’t just financial, but the consequences of the mismanagement were – and it hit our pockets. It hit them hard: last year, then this year, and for the next few years.

The more I got involved in what they were doing – and why – I became vested in the “cause” – for want of a better word. The passion and commitment to salvage our wonderful city from a potential oblivion was infectious, so I got on board. I’ve always loved this city and railed against its detractors, so it wasn’t a difficult decision.

Carry on a few months, after I’d met a group of individuals who had a similar love of the city and desire to make it the place we want our kids to return to (if not, stay), I felt obliged to stand for council. I’d learned too much to ignore and I’d met people with experience and expertise who could bring genuine change to council.

These people contributed articles to the group Better Hamilton (as did others), which were posted on their website. These articles explained and clarified the significant risks we face here if nothing changes – particularly from a wasteful spending standpoint, but that’s not the only issue.

Call us a ticket if you want, but we are a group of individuals who coalesced into a team. A team with 80% agreement on core issues but sufficient independence that we can forge our own path. We have no central government party allegiances – not National, not the Greens or Labour – unlike others. At least the Act candidates disclose their allegiances.

We’ve banged on about all the financial woes, the hiding of information, the difficulty in getting data on important spending. The poor decision making that seems to just be a desire to rubber-stamp anything council staff present – by a majority, not all.

But, enough of that. If you don’t know that already, so be it. We can’t keep focusing on the negative.

The reality is that we can bring change – and I don’t just mean that as some airy-fairy slogan. We have a plan, down to the detail. We know how and where money is being wasted and we know what to do to rein that in and ensure that, instead of spending a fortune on blue-chip projects, we can spend the same amount on multiple projects that benefit all the community.

What are we talking about? Well, the first one is roads and water infrastructure. Some will mock the roads thing because “cyclists” – but hear me out.

Rifle Range Road was a complete debacle. There were many other ways to do that job that kept cyclists and cars separated – just look at Wairere Drive.  Those “tim tams” aren’t safe, and what happens when council doesn’t have the budget to keep them swept clear because they’ve spent $750,000 on one, at-grade (painted lines), pedestrian crossing. Was the sole goal just to eliminate carparks at a place where they are beyond vital?

But it’s not about the money we could save for an austerity purpose – that’s rubbish – it’s about the money we can allocate to other projects, or more numerous projects. Whilst focusing on (overpriced) raised platform crossings we have ignored the footpaths that our elderly and mobility impaired have to navigate on a daily basis. It’s all well and good to have a crossing that costs as much as a house, but how do they actually manage to get there?

And this is the foundation of our campaign. It’s not about slamming everything that council has done over the last 5-6 years and more (I mean, that’s easy). It’s about showing how money can be far better spent, with a much better return for far more residents and not just the squeaky wheels.

We do know how to do it, we actually have a plan – in detail. We have experience and the expertise – and the determination to make it happen. We have an alternate budget, we have costings for most projects, we know about the importance of due-diligence and cost-benefit analysis.

We love this city. We not only want it to excel, we want our kids to want to come back here and enjoy the place that we really had a great time in for a large chunk of our lives.

And they won’t do that if it is utterly unaffordable.