Gore District Councillor, Neville Phillips, has been declared ‘SuperHuman’, taking out a top Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) award for his outstanding efforts representing Mataura as an elected member for 21 years.
A Council employee, community board member, councillor, volunteer fireman and sports administrator – Councillor Phillips has spent half a lifetime serving the Mataura community and wider Gore District.
Community service was ingrained into Cr Phillips from a young age with his parents, siblings and wider family all involved in their local volunteer fire brigade or St John.
When Cr Phillips received his Gold Star for 50 years of service to the Mataura Volunteer Fire Brigade, it meant his immediate and wider family had collectively given 600 years’ service to the fire service or St John.
His contribution to Mataura started in 1987 in a most practical way – as a supervisor on the old government PEP employment scheme. At only 24 years old, he oversaw 14 trainees whose job was to look after the town.
His political career was launched in 2003 when he was elected to the newly created Mataura Community Board.
He says his motivation was to ensure the town “had a voice”. There was also a degree of nostalgia – he could see some of his work in the 80s, the cobblestones and footpaths, were showing their age and needed repaired.
However, it was a project that would give the town a focal point and place to meet that earned Cr Phillips the respect and gratitude of his community.
The development of the Mataura Community Centre took 12 years from when it was first mooted to when it opened on 30 January 2009. Cr Phillips has quietly worked away negotiating, persuading, and sharing his big-picture vision of how to make Mataura a vibrant, safe community, the Council said in a statement.
“Cr Phillips – Neville – has shown an unselfishness and willingness to affect change at all levels. He is as much at home talking footpaths and multi-million-dollar infrastructure projects as he is operating at the highest level of diplomacy,” the Council said.
Now semi-retired, Neville is revelling in spending more time immersed in all things local government and says he has no intentions of slowing down.
“Every town needs a Neville,” said the Council.
