RDRR Rejects Council Threats and ‘Request’ as Shabby and Anti-Democratic

1 November 2015

Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers (RDRR) rejects recent attempts by the Rotorua District Council to coerce citizens into taking down the Yellow Signs, describing them as shabby and anti-democratic tactics.

The RDRR was dismayed when the chair of the Waikuta No. 2 Trust reported (Martin, RDP, 29 Oct, p. 3) that they had taken down the signs on the Ngongotaha straight because he had read that “the council could fine people for having them”. These bully-boy tactics backfired.

Other citizens immediately volunteered to have signs erected on their private properties.

The RDRR was saddened that land owners, who had erected temporary signs to ask hard questions of Council, were sent a proforma letter by an official of the ‘Rotorua Lakes Council’ requesting that they ‘promptly make … required adjustments to the signage’.

The ‘request’ suffered from over reach. Complaints allegedly expressed by a few people about road safety and visual amenity values should have been compared to other current bill boards and weighed against other citizens’ rights to freedom of expression. Further, since the temporary signs on private property are not related to a specific activity or event onsite, they are technically not subject to the terms of the District Plan and therefore can’t be deemed to be ‘in breach’. That may be why bylaw revisions are being considered to make it so; implying that if the current regime can’t win within the law, it will change the law.

Despite this, in an act of good faith in the public good, and to sustain the democratic rights of residents and ratepayers, the RDRR will ensure that the Yellow Signs comply with temporary event signage requirements regarding size, height and duration of display.

Finally, since the letter was issued after $5,000 had been spent once again purchasing legal advice in an attempt to back political preferences on Council, and not counting the wasted time of officials, it means that public servants have been politicised in an attempt to muzzle the authentic but inconvenient questions of residents and ratepayers.

It is time for the Mayor and her regime to call off the attacks on the Yellow Signs and start answering the questions of Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers. And for citizens to consider joining the RDRR in defence of our right to question and change Council.

ends

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