Residents want ‘bickering’ to end
Horowhenua residents have a message for their infighting district council: ‘‘Get on with it’’.
This call comes after a leaked audit report revealed that emails from some members of the public to Horowhenua District Council staff and councillors were being intercepted and viewed by chief executive David Clapperton.
The report, which emerged on Monday, shows Clapperton screened emails, including some to mayor Michael Feyen, which prompted Feyen to ask Clapperton to stand aside while the report was investigated.
The Manawatu Standard visited the streets of Levin on Thursday to speak to residents about the scandal.
Elisabeth Glinkovska said she was fed up with having a ‘‘bickering’’ council.
While the email blocking was a ‘‘bit of a kerfuffle’’ that needed to be resolved, the council was wasting ratepayer money by not doing its job, she said.
Horowhenua resident Beverley Dowling said the council needed to ‘‘get on with it’’ and start communicating with each other.
Asking Clapperton to stand down would just ‘‘inflame the situation’’ and slow things down, she said.
Dowling said the council needed to stop playing the blame game and learn to work together, she said.
Heather Corbett said the situation at the council was a ‘‘bloody disgrace’’.
‘‘We elected the mayor and they just don’t seem to be taking any notice of him. It’s like he’s got no voice.’’
A full council meeting was cancelled on Wednesday night, which upset Feyen who said many hours of staff work had gone into its preparation.
In a statement, Clapperton said there were a ‘‘range of reasons’’ for why some councillors could not attend the meeting, which lead to it being cancelled due to the lack of a quorum.
In the current term, and the previous two terms, this was the first ordinary council meeting to be cancelled, he said.