The Star: July 21, 2016

10 Thursday July 21 2016
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ews
Councillors warned not to
repeat ‘mistakes of the past’
THERE
• By Gabrielle Stuart
THE CITY council is defending
it’s decision to renegotiate how
much it spends on anchor
projects, in spite of being warned
it is “repeating the mistakes of the
past”.
Mayor Lianne Dalziel and the
current city councillors have
often complained their hands
are tied over the city council’s
finances.
This occurred because former
mayor Bob Parker’s city council
committed them to spend set
amounts on major projects
through the cost-sharing agreement
with Government.
However, the current city councillors
plan to do the same thing
to the next batch of councillors.
They are currently in discussions
with Government over the
agreement, and expect to sign the
new version by August, before the
October elections.
The current agreement includes
city council commitments of
almost $147 million to the Metro
Sports Facility, $60 million to the
new Central Library and $253
NEGOTIATION: The city council and Government are currently
renegotiating the cost sharing agreement. ​
million toward a new stadium.
Ms Dalziel said the discussions
were not a significant renegotiation,
but they were “tidying the
agreement up”.
She did not answer questions
from The Star about what the
consequences would be if the review
was delayed, or whether she
would consider delaying it until
after the elections.
Cr Raf Manji said delaying the
discussions would be likely to
hold up projects like the Metro
Sports Facility.
Cr Jamie Gough was part of the
former city council which signed
the agreement.
He said it would be difficult
to postpone the renegotiation,
because it would take time for the
new city councillors to “get their
heads around the problems” after
they were elected.
If there were any major changes
proposed to projects, he said he
would vote for the renegotiation
to be delayed.
“If there are significant changes,
it would be absurd for council
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to sign that off and I don’t think
anyone would want to do that.”
Keep Our Assets Canterbury
convener Murray Horton said no
matter the scale of the negotiations,
the new city councillors
would have to work with the new
agreement when putting together
budgets each year, so they needed
to have a say.
“This is a big, major decision
which needs to be done properly,
because these anchor projects
will set the structure of the city
for years to come.”
Former community board
member Rod Cameron, who is
running for council this year,
said the city councillors were
repeating the mistakes of the
past.
He believed they should wait
until the new council was elected,
even if it meant projects were
delayed.
“What’s another six months
when we’ve been waiting five and
a half, almost six years? It’s worth
being able to take that time and
assess things. A rushed decision
is not always the best one to
take.”
The Star
Massive rates
relief revealed
ARE two filing cabinets
at city council filled with
requests for rates relief due to
the earthquakes – amounting to
$16 million.
After the February 22, 2011
earthquake, property owners
were offered rates relief if their
properties were left uninhabitable.
About 8000 homes were redzoned
by the Government after
the earthquake.
Information released under
the Official Information Act
showed that the city council had
granted more than $16 million
in rates remissions as a consequence
of the February 22, 2011
earthquake.
Due to the sheer number of
applications, the city council
were not able to definitively find
out how many properties had
been granted a rates remission.
It would take, estimated the city
council, two weeks of staff time.
But it estimated that it had
processed about 8000 requests,
of which 90 per cent were approved.
The city council said
this gave an average of about
$2000 per property.
“But the amount will vary
considerably between different
properties,” said the response.
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