'Unrealistic Nonsense': Coast Councillor Warns Against Populist Election Promises

Wednesday, 13 August 2025, 3:49 pm
Article: Lois Williams - Local Democracy Reporter

Council candidates promising things they cannot deliver could cost the West Coast dearly in the local government elections, Regional Council chair Peter Haddock is warning.

His comments follow statements from Cr Allan Birchfield who is promising to slash costs and council functions if his Reform ticket wins a majority in the October poll.

After three years of bitter clashes with the council he once led, the Greymouth goldminer is about to put his maverick stand to the ultimate test.

Mr Birchfield has already said he will campaign for the abolition of the West Coast Regional Council. With four supporters now on board his Reform ticket, Mr Birchfield says his initial aim would be to slash staff numbers by two-thirds.

“We need to get back to basics - consents and compliance and river work to protect people and property. If you simplified things I believe you could get by with about 40 staff - not 100-plus. ”

Ratepayers should not have to pay for work such as the council’s recent State of the Environment report, he said.

“If the government wants an environment report, it should fund it. We shouldn’t be charging pensioners in Westport for that stuff.“

He would also take a knife to Civil Defence costs.

“It’s now costing us $1.5 million a year mainly for staff and it’s all for the district councils - they should be doing it and rating for it themselves.”

The council should also shut down the new combined district plan for the West Coast (Te Tai O Poutini Plan), Mr Birchfield said.

“It’s cost us $8 million so far and it’ll cost another $8 million before we’re through. The government’s telling us to stop planning because it’s abolishing the RMA but we’re still at it.”

Since he was censured and deposed as chair in 2023, having seen off two chief executives, Mr Birchfield has been a thorn in the council’s side.

He regularly objects to cost increases, on the basis that West Coast ratepayers can’t afford them.

And to the exasperation of fellow councillors, he has voted repeatedly against measures they support, including the council’s Long Term Plan, where rate rises were hammered out in workshops he did not attend.

“They’ve thrown me off most of the committees – they don’t really want me there,” Mr Birchfield said.

“They’ve forgotten about the ratepayers - they just keep putting the rates up, writing more reports and hiring more staff.” West Coast Regional Council rates have risen by more than 50 percent over three years - one of the highest increases in the country.

And staff numbers have gone up from about 80 to 116 as the Council has tackled major flood protection projects, and planning and policy work deferred in previous years.

But while the reform rhetoric may be music to the ears of hard-pressed West Coast ratepayers, WCRC chairman Peter Haddock says it is potentially misleading.

“Everyone loves hearing this stuff – that the rates are too high, there’s too many staff and so on. But it’s unrealistic nonsense. Allan has forgotten how councils work.”

There were many functions the council had to perform, by law, he says.

“That includes State of the Environment report – that’s valuable information and it’s a statutory requirement.”

The same applied to Civil Defence, Mr Haddock said.

“If the district councils had to do all their own emergency planning they’d be duplicating staff. We have to be prepared- it’s 60 years since the Inangahua earthquake and the weather’s not improving.“

If Mr Birchfield wanted to stop the TTPP he should have done so at the start, when the WCRC was ordered by the government to oversee the Plan, Mr Haddock said.

“Cr Birchfield was part of the council that drew up the draft. It’s too late now – the Commissioners’ report’s due out this month and parts of the plan that weren’t submitted on are already law. “

Hearings on the TTPP finished in March and the plan is now at the decision stage. Developers and builders all over the Coast were relying on new zonings expected in the TTPP, Mr Haddock said.

“My biggest concern is that if we get a council elected that tries to turn the clock back and says we’re not doing this stuff, the Government will lose confidence and pull the funding we need funding to finish the Hokitika and Greymouth flood schemes.”

That had happened in Mr Birchfield’s time as chair when the government had withheld funding for the Franz Josef floodwall project for a time, Mr Haddock said.

It had been hard work winning back Wellington’s trust - and the money, he said.

“If there’s too much discord again on council, they’ll see us as dysfunctional, put in Commissioners and the West Coast will lose its local voice,” Mr Haddock warned.

Mr Birchfield was the second-highest polling candidate in the last council elections in 2022. He would not speculate on his chances of success this time around.

“We’ll see who supports us - I’m easy either way. But we’re at least giving people a choice and the opportunity for change,” he said.

On Cr Birchfield’s Reform ticket are his sister, business owner Glenys Perkins; Greymouth fisherman Allan Rooney ; Whataroa dairy farmer Sheila Julian, and Buller man Kevin Smith.

All the regional councillors apart from Mr Haddock are standing again and five independent candidates have also entered the race.

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

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