Disclosure upsets council

Press, 27 July 1984, Page 5

Disclosure upsets council

The disclosure of confidential reports, allegedly by a Heathcote County councillor, has upset council members. At the council’s monthly meeting last evening, members reacted strongly to a report from the county chairman, Mr Oscar Alpers, that a councillor had leaked confidential material to the news media. The material concerned talks between Heathcote and the Lyttelton Borough Council about possibilities for closer co-operation between the two councils. Mr Alpers said he was told that a person had taken copies of reports about the talks to the Christchurch “Star” and expressed “his” opposition to any closer cooperation between the councils. He hoped that publicising the contents of the reports would raise public

opposition and prevent further moves in that direction. Mr Alpers said he was completely satisfied that that person was not a council staff member, but a councillor. “While I am happy that the ‘Star* had the good sense to recognise that the papers given to it were simply preliminary staff reports and could not be interpreted as council proposals or reflective of council thinking, I am deeply dismayed that one of our councillors cannot be trusted to keep even a matter such as this confidential,” he said. If the identity of that councillor could be ascertained, it would be Mr Alpers’ intention to censure him. “I am horrified to think of the damage that could be done to the council’s interests in other situations

where it is obliged to consider, for example, information of a personal nature or matters which are subject to legal proceedings, on a confidential basis in committee,” he said. A comment by Cr Tom Wills that the councillor responsible, if identified, be asked to resign from the council was supported round the table. The incident cast a shadow on the councillors, Cr Marette Taylor said. Elderly units The development of eight “upmarket” units for elderly people was approved by the council last evening. The units, expected to cost more than ?1 million, will be built in the grounds of Lady King Hospital, Cashmere. The application for the development scheme was

made by Woodruff and Hutch Developments, Ltd, before a town-planning hearing committee last week. Four units would be contained in a two-storey block and another two in a second two-storey building. Two single-storey units would also be built. History A photograph of the Heathcote County Council of 1919, shown to the council last evening, has spurred interest in compiling historical records of the council. The proposal has met support from all the councillors. The works and reserves committee has been appointed the task of obtaining photographic records of previous chairmen, councillors, and senior officers.