Kaiapoi council stays

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 1

Kaiapoi council stays

Kaiapoi Borough councillors, including the Mayor (Mr B. O. Williams), were unanimous in rejecting calls for their resignations at a council meeting last evening. The council received a deputation of 36 residents and ratepayers who presented a petition signed by 1107 residents of the borough all calling for their resignation. The petition followed the recent approval by the council of a more than 38 per cent increase in rates for the coming year. The increase was extortionate, said the leader of

the deputation, Mr J. Wilson. Councillors should examine their consciences over the increase to see if they had done an adequate job in trying to cut expenditure and avoid errors in the estimates, he said. In the opinion of his deputation the councillors had not lived up to the oath they had made when taking office, and had lost the confidence of the people of Kaiapoi, said Mr Wilson. He outlined errors which he alleged the council and council staff had made

when reporting on the estimates.

Mr Wilson also rejected a claim, which he said was made by the Mayor, that fluoridation equipment required by the Health Department had increased the cost of the town’s new water supply scheme.

The cost increase for the equipment was $BOOO and not the $41,000 the Mayor had originally claimed, said Mr Wilson.

Mr Williams agreed that the equipment had added only $BOOO to the over-all cost of the project, but, he said, it had increased the

cost. As for the estimates, the protesters had taken their figures from draft copies and not from the final copy approved and accepted by the council. Mr Wilson was given an hour by the council to present the deputation’s case, but was often interrupted by councillors or the Mayor as they sought to explain or contradict points he raised.

Cr V. J. Tie, in rejecting the call for resignation, said: “I have nothing to be ashamed of. I have always had the town in mind.”