Media Release: Rik Tindall, community board candidate

Date: 19 April 2012

Subject:
Labour-Led Community Board Idle

The cancellation of the Spreydon-Heathcote Community Board meeting this week - “due to lack of quorum" - is puzzling one board candidate.

A by-election is running currently, to replace Mike Thorley who departed last year to take up work in Australia. But being a board member down is no excuse for stopping work, says Cashmere resident Rik Tindall.

“The community expects its local work to be done, urgently in the wake of the earthquakes,” says Tindall. “Board members are remunerated for service, and have no excuses for not doing it.”

"Councillors Sue Wells and Barry Corbett would have been meeting with Earthquake Minister Gerry Brownlee that afternoon, for the briefing on the Christchurch Central Development Unit ahead of its announcement. But they could have come late, and that still left a majority of the community board tasked to meet and able to proceed," Tindall believes.

“Why did the scheduled board meeting not take place?”, Tindall is asking.

“The fact that it was a purely Labour representative majority did not make the meeting unsafe to proceed,” Tindall believes. “This must have been about one or more of that majority of Labour members being unavailable. So rate-payers have a right to know who was absent, and why, since rate-payers will have to cover the costs of rescheduling the agenda content,” he says.

“Local roading, parking, footbridge replacement, community gardens and the draft Sydenham Master Plan were all on the agenda and now suffer delays,” Tindall points out - “why?”

“Rate-payers should therefore also be questioning the value of adding another Labour member to this board, in light of this meeting’s failure,” Tindall says. “We need dedicated and effective members on every public organisaton - especially here and now, in Christchurch.”

“Delegations are in place for essential community decision-making. It is plainly unacceptable when these are not being carried out,” Tindall concludes. “Vote wisely.”

Ref. http://www1.ccc.govt.nz/council/agendas/2012/april/spreydonheathcote17th/index.asp

ENDS

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