Council campaign criticised
The Fendalton Labour Electorate Committee says that political campaigning by the Riccarton Borough Council in its newsletter last month has cost ratepayers a strong voice against forced amalgamations in the Government caucus.
But Riccarton’s Mayor, Mr Dick Harrington, last evening dismissed the claim as nonsence.
Mr Francis O’Connell, the chairman of the electorate committee, claimed that "party political prop-
aganda supporting the National Party’s attitude to the Local Government Commission” took up much of the August issue of the "Riccarton Borough News.”
By using the newsletter to "support the National Party, elements within the council ensured that they were left with only a weak Opposition voice to state their case,” Mr O’Connell said. The Labour candidate for Fendalton, Dr Neil Cherry, had stated his op-
position to forced amalgamations. Had he been elected the ratepayers of Riccarton would have had an effective voice in the Government caucus, Mr O’Connell said.
Mr Harrington last evening said the council’s newsletter was prepared by an independent producer. There had been no planned campaign in Fendalton, although the Communities Against Forced Amalgamation group, of which Riccarton is a member, had targeted
marginal seats in its campaign to keep local government reform an election issue.
The council’s opposition to forced amalgamation had been clear for a long time and had not changed in the lead-up to the election, he said.
He dismissed any idea that the information in the “Borough News” had backfired on the council and deprived ratepayers of a voice in the Government.
The important point
was that the Minister of Local Government, Dr Bassett, had admitted that the survey provisions for local body amalgamation polls needed to be changed.
C.A.F.A.N.Z. would be meeting again soon and would discuss the announcement by the Local Government Commission that it planned to have restructuring proposals for all councils by February. •
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Press, 16 September 1987, Page 9
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308Council campaign criticised Press, 16 September 1987, Page 9
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