It's a two horse race in the Gore District with a former councillor and the current mayor facing off for the mayoralty.

Last election, then-23-year-old Ben Bell became the youngest mayor in the country's history, ousting incumbent Tracy Hicks by just eight votes.

This time round he's competing against Nicky Davis, a former councillor and council head of operations.

They went head-to-head in a Southland Business Chamber debate in Gore on Monday night.

Nicky Davis, left, and Ben Bell front for the debate. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton

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Gore residents arrived at the debate armed with issues they want to see tackled - rates, core infrastructure, central services and debt were top of mind.

Bell acknowledged it had not been an easy first 18 months.

During that time, he weathered calls for him to step down, a potential vote of no confidence that was ultimately aborted, and a fractured relationship with then-chief executive Stephen Parry, who ultimately resigned.

But he said the council pushed through change during the tough times.

"We changed from building an imaginary bridge to building a pipeline under the ground. We changed from buying land for no reason to selling assets to pay back debt, and we changed a top heavy council to appointing a new chief executive to running the council properly," Bell said.

The district was ripe for an economic boom and he wanted to attract more businesses here, he said.

Rates a key factor for Davis

Davis thought her council days were behind her.

However, it was community concern about rates and the direction of the council that encouraged her to stand for mayor.

"This year, the rate rise was closer to 24 (percent), but instead the council opted to rate 8.8 (percent) and borrow the rest, giving us all a false sense economy," she said.

"This is like putting the groceries on the credit card."

She flagged a possible moratorium on new spending and wanted the council and chief executive to investigate how they could cut costs further, including staffing costs.

She feared the council might be forced to merge with other local councils or make unwanted change in the future

"The preference for me would be to be involved in those discussions. We need to get the best deal we can get for our ratepayers, not shoved into something without a voice," Davis said.

Bell was sceptical about possible amalgamation and he was also worried Gore might lose its independence.

"That's what you've got to fight for is making sure that the structure is correct before you press go. I don't think that if you dwindle Gore down to one seat on a bigger council or to a community board and then doing away with the Mataura community board, I don't think that's representation that Gore deserves," Bell said.

'It's been a shambles'

The government's September deadline for submitting their water service delivery plans is looming.

Bell said the council recently agreed to partner up.

"We're really lucky. We've managed to hold onto both Central Otago and Clutha so we can get those economies of scale," he said.

"But in terms of the overall framework, I do think it's been a shambles. It's been a really tough ask."

Davis said they needed more councils to hop onboard.

"With three councils that are left, I'm not sure that there's enough in the way of numbers to actually bring down the costs enough so I think further discussions and further explorations need to be made," she said.

Debate MC Jeff Grant was pleased to see plenty of interest from the public.

"At the end of the day, the mayor is the leader of the council in terms of forming the debate and the direction of the district," Grant said.

But did the ratepayers get what they were after?

It was a mixed response when RNZ spoke to residents after the debate - some were happy with the answers they got while others said they did not hear enough about solutions.

With less than two months until election day, Gore ratepayers were keen to hear more before giving their tick of approval.

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