Ellery extends family connection

NEW Manawatu District Councillor Wayne Ellery is extending his family’s local body connection with Feilding and neighbouring areas.

Not only did his father, Kelvin, serve 23 years with local authorities in the district, but his great-uncle, Herb Dewe, was the Mayor of Feilding from 1958 to 1965.

Mr Ellery, who won the Feilding Ward by-election earlier this month, was inducted as a councillor last week in a ceremony conducted by Manawatu District Mayor Margaret Kouvelis and before his wife, Libby; children Jazman and Shaun, and parents, Gail and Kelvin.

Coincidentally, when a ward by-election was first required by the MDC it was in 1990 and won by Kelvin Ellery (for the Oroua Ward), who remained a councillor until 1998. Previously, he had spent 15 years on the Feilding Borough Council, with two terms as Deputy Mayor.

Mr Ellery agreed there was a “bit of generational there” on the family links with local body politics, and on how someone supporting his decision to stand had observed it was “in your blood”.

“I followed things from an early age and can remember being eight and sitting outside the library listening to Tui Mayo (long-serving Feilding Borough Councillor) and my father go on,” he said.