Reasons given for another amalgamation proposal

December 24th, 2013

The surprise application for another look at amalgamating the Nelson and Tasman councils, announced publicly last week (see our story here), is based on modifications to the 2012 proposal and a belief that some attitudes have since changed.

The application was lodged by Rick Farr, a Nelson corporate and commercial lawyer, and his original letter is now available to view. You can read it here.

His new proposal asked for four wards, with 10 councillors representing Nelson-Richmond, four representing Motueka-Moutere, one member representing Golden Bay and one member representing Murchison Lakes.

Mr Farr said that the 2012 referendum vote showed Nelson City Council area was 56% in support, and that there very strong community leaders support back then from both Tasman and Nelson.

He said that support included "such community leaders as Peter Talley and Murray Sturgeon from Tasman and the then Nelson Mayor Aldo Miccio and many councillors from Nelson City Council plus many other leaders from business, arts, sport and social services throughout Tasman and Nelson, including the Golden Bay Community Board and Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce".

Among other reasons for his conviction that his proposal may find favour, he suggested:

"A Tasman Mayoral candidate in this year's elections, a known pro 'amalgamationist' Kit Maling only narrowly lost the mayoral elections suggesting that support for a union of both councils has grown significantly over the past 18 months in Tasman."
"Increased public knowledge now of the significant debt problem Tasman District Council has and other infrastructure issues it is facing may also impact upon the support for the proposal to the extent that it would be a reasonable to conclude at least 50% support in Tasman as it was proven to have in Nelson in 2012."
"Tasman District Council area did not reach the 50% threshold in 2012, but modifications to the proposal above should ensure that 50% is reached, (such as a Maori Ward has not been included in the proposal. This was anecdotally shown to be one of the fundamental reasons the Tasman electorate did not vote for the union and the reason why more of Nelson electors did not vote for union.)"
"Another reason why in Tasman the vote did not reach the threshold appears to be the 'informality' in the use of Tasman District Council's resources to influence the public about the disadvantages of the union. Particularly, where the accuracy of the information provided in that way was questionable."

Comment by Philip Grimmett:
[Posted 28 December 2013]

I too was surprised by the report of another proposal for Tasman/Nelson Amalgamation. I understood that ratepayers had just recently considered such a proposal, and rejected it.

The justification for revisiting this issue is questionable. That we have another proposal, so soon after the last, from a corporate/commercial lawyer, makes one question whether the public good is the primary motivation.

Wasn't the Nelson Mayor at the time, the major proponent of amalgamation, defeated at the last local body election? The public has already voted on the matter, and revisiting the non issue is untimely, unnecessary and unseemly. In this light, I see it as disrespectful to the democratic process.

Comment by Sjors Brouwer:
[Posted 29 December 2013]

Mr Farr clearly has a non-objective agenda of his own, and does a lot of 'wishful thinking' (that is being kind to him). Reacting directly on Mr Farr's list of 'new reasons' for amalgamation:

* Stating that the almost-succesful mayoral candidate Kit Maling was pro-amalgamation: We didn't even know! Kit stayed away from the issue, because it would have seriously damaged his mayoral campaign, which is telling enough.

* In the first amalgamation campaign, it was made very clear that Tasman's debt would stay in Tasman. Thus, to now use this debt as a reason for amalgamation, would thus suggest Nelson would shoulder the Tasman debt, which will surely lower the support for amalgamation in Nelson.

* Pure speculation about the effect a maori ward would have, Using the word 'anecdotally'.

* About biased publicity: the same can be said about both sides, and especially right now, in Mr Farr's highly coloured communications.

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