27 August 2007

Hands Up Tasman

Tasman District Council Ignores Twenty Thousand People

“The Tasman District Council’s (TDC) decision to pull out of the North Nelson to Brightwater Corridor Study clearly illustrates the lack of commitment to work constructively on key regional issues,” said Tasman mayoral candidate Phil Taylor.

“With up to 20,000 Tasman residents traveling to Nelson on a daily basis and the Tasman economy highly dependant on transport it is ridiculous to suggest The Corridor is a problem only for Nelson City.”

“A solution is clearly just as a vital for Tasman as it is for Nelson City. The only difference at the end of the day was that the negative physical impacts of both Option 1 and Option 2 were to be borne largely by Nelson residents.”

“I hope the TDC will see some sense and get back round the table. Obviously though it will be up to the new council to pick up the pieces and sort this out.”

“I am standing for Mayor of Tasman District because I want the Tasman and Nelson councils to work better together.”

“This effectively means resolving regional issues as well as achieving efficiencies through the pooling of resources in the interests of delivering better services.”

“The North Nelson to Brightwater Corridor impasse is one of a number of issues where the Councils had failed to collectively embrace regional concerns. It is ridiculous for a region of less than one hundred thousand people to believe each Council could go it alone and expect cost effective and balanced social outcomes.”

“There simply isn’t enough money to do this and rate payers can’t be expected to continue to bear the consequences!” said Mr. Taylor.

This statement in full is online at www.handsup.org.nz

Ends

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