Councillor wanted more time
The Invercargill City Council has adopted its 2020/21 annual which includes a 2 per cent rate rise.
Councillors agreed to adopt the plan at meeting yesterday with only Cr Nobby Clark speaking against it.
He said councillors only had three or four days to look through the annual plan put together by council staff.
Clark said it was a significant document that will guide the council through its activities in the next 12 months, and he wanted more time to work through it.
He felt the annual plan was missing information.
Consultant Steve Bramley was doing some work around council projects and Clark felt it did not make sense to not wait for his feedback before adopting the annual plan.
He was also keen to hear the outcome of Government infrastructure applications and also factor in the impact of the sale of the council’s forestry estate.
Clark added that the annual plan did not address the key issue of the museum and museum storage.
‘‘I think going forward in the next 12 months we can not let the museum issue sit unattended to.’’
However, Cr Darren Ludlow said it was not a case of ramming through the annual plan in three or four days.
‘‘It has been a prolonged-process across a variety of months. The objective was always to have the rates ready to strike at the end of June.’’
At the meeting, changes were made to the council’s risk and assurance committee to align with the overhaul of the governance structure.
Former chairs of the community services committee, Lindsay Abbott, and regulatory committee, Alan Arnold, have been removed from the committee with Ludlow, Alex Crackett and Rebecca Amundsen replacing them.
Abbot was disappointed and felt all councillors should be included on the risk and assurance committee to align with the principles of the governance overhaul.
‘‘I’m afraid I do take this a bit personally and I feel again that I’ve sort of been shafted, as I was a week or two ago,’’ Abbott said.