Nelson petition certified; final Tasman signatures to be sought

Aldo Miccio has announced today that Election New Zealand has certified the Nelson amalgamation review petition, however more Tasman elector signatures are to be sought.

The amalgamation review petition, launched in July 2009, has successfully achieved the 10% threshold of certified signatures of Nelson electors, but has fallen short of Tasman signatures by 1%.

Cr Miccio says he will meet with Election New Zealand today to discuss options of achieving the final certified Tasman signatures.

“We are really pleased that we have had the Nelson petition certified, however it is unfortunate that we fell short in Tasman by so few,” says Miccio. “I will be the first to put up my hand and admit that I underestimated the challenge of only being able to work with the older 2008 roll when verifying signatures, while Election New Zealand works with a roll that is as recent as last week.
“We did have more signatures than we needed, so I still don’t doubt that people are keen for this, but not only did the 3800 Tasman residents who signed need to be keen, they also had to be on the roll, and obviously there are some who thought they were and weren’t, or some who have now moved out of the region since signing.”

“In total we have 8300 signatures, 3400 certified in Nelson and over 3000 certified in Tasman,” he says. “This still represents a voice that is louder than any other consultative process seen in the last three years of local government in the region, and it’s important that both Councils recognise this significant ground swell.

“This shortfall in Tasman is unfortunate, but the process is by no means over,” he says. “We have come to the first hurdle but we have not fallen at the first hurdle.

“Given the overwhelming support, we are currently looking at a number of known options to gain the final signatures we need, and we will evaluate these before we decide which course we will take to further a process that our community wants - an investigation into the possible benefits of amalgamation for our region.”

ENDS

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