Holdom folds on land sale
A proposal to sell half of New Plymouth’s seaside golf course has been hit out of bounds.
Yesterday afternoon New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom said he would be recommending against the sale of half the Fitzroy Golf Club land for housing.
Without its champion the plan is dead in the water and will almost certainly be dropped on Wednesday when the district council deliberates on its Long Term Plan.
Karen Venables and Craig Williamson, of the Save Fitzroy Golf Club campaign, said Holdom’s decision was a relief.
They had believed the council had decided to sell the land despite significant opposition.
The pair were joined by Taranaki Golf executive officer Nick Northam at the course yesterday for a celebratory glass of wine.
‘‘I think it’s wonderful,’’ Venables said.
‘‘I thought they’d already made up their mind and they weren’t going to change it.
‘‘It’s great news for the city, and it’s great news for Fitzroy.’’
Williamson said the mayor had made a wise decision.
‘‘It feels fantastic. I think it’s amazing.’’
Holdom changing his mind doesn’t mean the sale of the land is completely off the cards.
On Wednesday he and 14 councillors will sit down to deliberate on a number of submissions made to the draft long term plan.
‘‘I will be making a recommendation to my fellow councillors to make a decision, that is that we don’t sell any of the land at Peringa Park Recreational Reserve to fund flagship projects,’’ Holdom said.
‘‘We’ve heard loud and clear what people are telling us.
‘‘I want to apologise to anyone and everyone who’s been stressed, upset or confused by my ideas. It was never my intention.
‘‘The last thing I wanted to do was to stress people and create angst and I’ve done that.
I have to take responsibility for that and I got it wrong. I’m sorry.’’
The sale of the park land was one of Holdom’s key proposals as mayor but was widely opposed with hundreds of submissions received against it.
The mayor said he changed his mind while he was reading those submissions.
‘‘I suppose the thinking cemented through the three days of the hearings,’’ he said. "Would we do it differently if I had the chance? Yeah, I think there are things that we would do differently.’’
Holdom’s statement appeared to be a turnaround from earlier in the day when a text message to him from a Stuff reporter about him dropping his support for the proposal received an ambiguous response.
‘‘I am not sure where you got your information from but only the full council can make decisions on these matters and that process begins on Wednesday next week,’’ he replied.
Councillor Gordon Brown said Holdom had told the councillors on Wednesday night he would be making the recommendation.
‘‘That’s what they are; the council still has to approve them,’’ Brown said.
‘‘The move was never a popular one and has been confronted by such an overwhelming tidal wave of public opposition the council had no choice but to act accordingly.
‘‘I think it’s sensible to get it out of the way sooner rather than later.’’
He said several councillors had been opposed to the idea from the beginning.
‘‘The only thing we agreed to, many of us, was it going out for consultation.’’
In getting the proposal into the long term plan process the council spent $22,062 on getting a legal opinion on both revoking the reserve land status and the lease with Fitzroy Golf Club, but would not reveal the advice it received.
It was proposed half the golf course be sold and split into sections which would sell for $305,000 plus GST to raise $35 million to fund flagship projects such as the redevelopment of either the TSB Stadium or the Todd Energy Aquatic Centre.
New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom needs to get things straight.
When asked yesterday morning if he was going to back down from supporting the proposal to sell half of the Fitzroy Golf Club he dodged answering the question and implied it had no basis anyway.
Yet hours later he’s apologising to the community for ever raising the golf sale idea and saying he got it wrong. That mismatch is not good enough.
The denial and the ‘‘turnaround’’ deserve scrutiny because it either means Holdom is making decisions on the fly, or he has been caught out not being straight.
There is a precedent for Holdom appearing to make decisions off the cuff.
The whole long term plan process, the creation of a document that guides the district for the next decade, has come across as a mish-mash of half-pie ideas and poorly managed processes.
Even if it had merit, the proposal to sell the golf course land was poorly executed. It wasn’t even clear if it could legally be done and then it was put to ratepayers as the only option to avoid massive rate hikes.
This was unimaginative at best and the tactics of a bully at worst and it was rightly shouted out of the room.
Then there were the flagship projects that the sale of the land was supposed to pay for. Great idea. But it was never clear what ratepayers were actually signing up for.
The upgrade of the TSB stadium was a plan dredged up from years before and arguably no longer relevant. Then the proposed upgrade of the Todd Energy Aquatic Centre that called for the main outdoor pool to be done away with was later dismissed by the mayor as something he would never let happen.
So why have either project there in the first place?
This all happened under Holdom’s watch.
It’s not good enough to blame the auditorgeneral for compelling the council to put projects forward for the community to consult on. If they hadn’t the long term plan process would have been pointless.
As to yesterday’s dodge of media questions that he had changed his mind on the golf course, Holdom isn’t the first politician caught on the hop who instinctively ducked for cover.
The explanation is he was waiting to tell his colleagues before he went public.
But if that was the case he should have said it. The people of New Plymouth district must be able to expect a straight answer from their mayor.
If there is a silver lining to Holdom’s flip-flop it’s that the proposal got the community invigorated about itself.
The record breaking 4000 submissions on the current draft long term plan is impressive.
It has raised the issue of how the council will fund itself in the future and ratepayers are well aware that things can’t carry on the way they have.
For that Holdom deserves to be commended. The same can’t be said for his tactics.
Even if it had merit, the proposal to sell the golf course land was poorly executed. It wasn’t even clear if it could legally be done.