Town Hall Debate Going ‘Round In Circles’, Masterton Mayor Says

Thursday, 7 August 2025, 5:38 pm
Article: Emily Ireland - Local Democracy Reporter

The demolition of Masterton’s century old town hall will proceed after a motion to pause work failed.

Councillor Tim Nelson lodged a notice of motion calling for an immediate pause on all physical and administrative work on the town hall project and Waiata House extension. 

He said proceeding with the work was not fiscally prudent and would burden vulnerable ratepayers in the challenging economic climate. 

The budget for the projects was capped at $25 million for the town hall and an estimated $8.7m for the Waiata House extension. 

The motion was supported by councillors Brent Goodwin, Marama Tuuta, and Tom Hullena, but failed to win over Mayor Gary Caffell, Deputy Mayor Bex Johnson, and councillors David Holmes, Stella Lennox, and Craig Bowyer. 

Nelson said the council was continuing to under-invest in roading and ratepayers would soon be faced with big water bills following water service delivery reform, all on the back of a recession. 

“I know what it’s like to be poor. I’m one of 13 siblings. I know what extra costs do to a family at a time where people are already struggling,” he said. 

"I’ve seen a lot of comments on social media from people saying if this [motion] goes through, I’ll never vote for Tim Nelson.

“I don’t care. I would be much happier for this vote to go through and not be successful in my attempt to become a councillor again.” 

In his statement of support for the motion, Goodwin said the council’s chief executive Kym Fell had previously expressed he had doubts a new town hall would proceed after demolition.

“This particular site is difficult geo-technical ground... it’s an old riverbed,” Goodwin said. 

“To build an IL3 (high importance level) building on it will cost more than you think.”

Fell did not confirm whether he had expressed doubts that a new town hall would be built. 

Goodwin said the 2022-2025 election term was categorised by “the beginning of the worst recession for about 30 years”. 

"I find it unfortunate that council, in such grim times and challenging times, opted to spend so much money - millions and millions - on non essential projects.“ 

“There are some major economic shocks coming to our community - water being the biggest one - and I would absolutely endorse pausing this project until roading and waters come into better focus.”

Caffell said the motion was “re-litigating what we have re-litigated in the past”. “We’re going round and round in circles on this.

“There’s nothing new here. In reality, it is a repeat of the debate we had when this council first made the decision to demolish the town hall some months ago.” 

He said with an earthquake rating of just 10%, “every day [the building] stands you could argue we are in danger of finding ourselves up the creek without a paddle if an earthquake did occur and someone got hurt”. 

“That building has to come down.” Lennox said the council had spent almost $2m since the town hall closed in 2016 to pay for extensive community consultation and professional reports, plus an extra $600,000 in “holding costs” such as insurance.

"To hit pause now is not responsible governance; it is backtracking and it directly undermines the clear democratic decisions already made around this table. 

“We have spent all this ratepayer money with nothing built and nothing removed and what do we have to show for it?” 

Se said Nelson’s motion “raises serious questions about political motivation”, but Nelson said he was “not posturing for re-election”. 

“Our ratepayers are struggling. They do not need this building,” he said. 

Hullena said Masterton could “get by with what we’ve got” and equated the town hall spend to buying a new car or bach “because I want one”. 

“We can’t say this is in the best interests of the community in the future. 

There’s been no business case. It was an emotional decision based on what people wanted.” 

Bowyer said he remained in favour of the demolition and that the “regeneration” of the town hall site had “always been the correct decision”. 

Holmes said Goodwin’s “persistent stalling of any progressive project has to cease” but this comment was stopped in its tracks by Fell. 

Johnson said councillors were elected to make decisions for the community and that although it could be daunting, “prolonged indecision can be detrimental”. 

Tuuta said although she was “not opposed to the demolition”, she supported Nelson’s motion because she believed the expense would be hard on ratepayers. 

When asked for his perspective on the issue, iwi representative Robin Potangaroa said he “would have driven the bulldozer yesterday”. Tenders for demolition closed on Tuesday. 

-LDR is local body journalism funded by RNZ and NZ on Air

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