Mayor sets record straight
Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith has promised a better system of keeping ratepayers informed about decisions the council makes in private after its controversial secret grant to Toyota New Zealand.
Smith made the pledge to the Palmerston North Lunch Club yesterday in a preview of his annual state of the city address to business leaders on Monday.
In a speech dominated by reported progress on the city’s ambitions for growth, likely to be underpinned by a 5 per cent rates rise in the coming year, Smith said he wanted to set the record straight about the grant.
He said there was no doubt the $391,000 grant had been important in convincing Toyota’s foreign investors to consolidate in Palmerston North and close an experimental distribution warehouse in Auckland.
He said it was a relief not to have to tell Palmerston North citizens the Toyota development had been lost to the city and that the council had done nothing.
Smith said it was essential councillors held their discussions about sensitive commercial negotiations in private, but it needed to do better with letting the public know the outcome of those decisions.
A register of decisions made behind closed doors needed to be set up and reviewed regularly, he said.
Smith said the ongoing challenge for the council would be to keep ahead of the growth that was happening and was indicated for the future, with projects worth about $3 billion in the pipeline.
He said Palmerston North was part of an international trend seeing the rise of small cities, which were big enough to offer a variety of services, facilities and events, yet still kept their personality and were affordable to live in.
Projects, including construction of the new highway replacing the Manawatu¯ Gorge road, a regional ring road and new bridge over the Manawatu¯ River, would drive demand for more housing, and the council had to make sure there was land available for urban growth.
Smith said developments would cause disruptions and a lot of road works over the next decade, but it was important to get ahead of growth rather than have to retrofit roads and services after the population had boomed, as it had in Hamilton and Tauranga.