Former council stalwart passes away

Tributes are being paid to former Far North District Council stalwart Laurie Byers, who has passed away aged 83.

Born in Whangārei on 31 March 1941, Laurie served as a councillor, deputy mayor, and community board member.

Far North Mayor Kahika Moko Tepania described Laurie as a community champion who made his community proud with his achievements over the years.

“On behalf of the Far North District Council, we offer our condolences to the whānau of our departed colleague Laurie Byers,” said Kahika Tepania.

“He was a community champion through and through in words and in actions, and I was fortunate to sit alongside him on the Kaikohe-Hokianga Community Board in the previous term. E hoa, e te rangatira, moe mai rā".

Laurie was first elected as a councillor in 1991 until 2012, serving as the deputy mayor from 2006 to 2009. He served on what used to be called the Western Community Board, now the Kaikohe-Hokianga Community Board, as the appointed councillor from 2001 to 2006. He returned to public life as an elected member on the same community board from 2019 to 2022.

As a councillor, he was an active advocate for sport and young people and a proud champion of the District Plan.

Laurie reportedly hated red tape to the point that he and another elected member planted trees themselves along Kaikohe’s main street.

But it wasn’t just in local government that Laurie made an impact. The Kaikohe farmer was an Olympian racing cyclist who won a bronze medal at the 1962 and 1966 Commonwealth Games.

Over the years, he has also been involved with a number of community groups, including the Kaikohekohe Education Trust, the North Point Trust and was patron of Bay of Islands Hockey.

In 2011, he was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for services to his community. Earlier this month, the Lions Club of Kaikohe, for which he served for more than 30 years, presented him with the Lloyd Morgan Charitable Trust - Honoured Membership Award.

The council’s flag will be flown at half-mast on the day of his funeral which is on Thursday 25 July.