Tension with council casts shadow over meeting
The strained relationship between the Golden Bay Community Board and the Tasman District Council cast a shadow over last Tuesday's board meeting in Collingwood. Mayor Richard Kempthorne and council's manager of corporate services Murray Staite were at the meeting and they attempted to smooth the way, but board members were clearly concerned about what board chair Joe Bell described as "issues of power and control".
The strained relationship showed in three ways: extended lead times for agendas, the extent to which council committees work "in committee" and the content of Mr Bell's report to the board.
Council has asked its standing committees and community boards to submit their agendas earlier in the month to allow more time for reports, such as board chair's reports, to be scrutinised to ensure that they do not contain what the mayor called "inappropriate and unhelpful" material. The longer lead-time also allows more time for council staff to research items that require them to supply information. Despite misgivings, the board resolved to trial a longer lead time for its agendas for three months.
The board also resolved to raise its concerns about the increase in "in committee" business being conducted by council. Cr Noel Riley said that similar concerns had been raised by councillors.
"It's abysmal," said board member Carolyn McLellan. "We used to get detailed information about the council's enterprises but now the minutes are just two pages of ‘in committee' work. Unfortunately the community services committee seems to going the same way."
Mr Bell said that his report to the board had been censored by council chief executive officer Paul Wylie. "My report was critical of Mr Wylie's report to council at the time of their decision not to rescind the targeted rate for communities with boards," said Mr Bell. "I said in last Friday's GB Weekly that his report contained factual errors and a nonsensical misquote of the commission's recommendations. It wasn't available on the website or in hard copy in sufficient time to allow for it to be critically considered. Those comments were removed from my report to the board by Mr Wylie himself. We can't operate in a cone of silence."
Mayor Kempthorne told The GB Weekly that his view of Tuesday's meeting was that it was more about ensuring that the written communication between council and board was designed to build a constructive working relationship.
"I think the way forward is for us to work on the crucial three-cornered relationship between Mr Bell, myself and Mr Wylie."
Tauhinu planting. In the public forum the hottest topic was the planting of tauhinu, which farmers described as a pest and a weed. Some resident groups, with the assistance of TDC and DOC, are planting tauhinu and farmers are concerned that it might infest hill country.
"Some of the hill country in eastern Golden Bay is pretty marginal farming land," said president of the Golden Bay branch of Federated Farmers, Graham Ball. "It would be an unfair imposition on the people farming there to risk infestation of tauhinu on that country. Planting it on the Motupipi sandspit is a risk. The prevailing northerly wind could carry seeds towards the hill country."
"Just because a plant is a native doesn't stop it from being a weed," said Graham Beardmore, whose view was echoed by other speakers.
Council reserves manager Beryl Wilkes later explained to The GB Weekly that tauhinu has been planted in a road reserve in Rocklands Road, Clifton, as well as on the sandspit at Motupipi.
"The planting projects are community initiatives involving residents, council and DOC," she said. "Tauhinu is on the planting list prepared for us by eminent botanist Shannel Courtney but we didn't supply it to the residents."
Golden Bay DOC worker Simon Walls explained to The GB Weekly that tauhinu is an opportunistic pioneer plant that it is found in many places in Golden Bay already.
"It will colonise disturbed or bare soil where the conditions are tough," said Simon. "It doesn't tolerate lush pasture. It'll get started where the land is overstocked or not fertilised for example. If the land's already got, it you can't argue that the threat is increased by having plants kilometres away from vulnerable country. There's a kind of a balance there and I don't know which way we should weight it. It's a philosophical question. It probably wouldn't be that big a deal for TDC to take it off its planting list but DOC is charged with protecting and maintaining biodiversity."
Public forum. Other matters raised in public forum included the ongoing drainage problems in the Gibbs Road and Swiftsure Street area of Collingwood; the recently adopted Tasman Resource Management Plan; the number of members on the community board; funding of the summer street banner project; the problems posed by freedom campers; the commemoration of the death of Abel Tasman; and the effects of the aerial application of 1080 poison.
Neil Wilson
