Mayor's arts centre steps raise eyebrows

BY TRACY NEAL

Nelson Mayor Kerry Marshall appears to be acting alone in his efforts to get a performing arts and conference centre up and running.

Mr Marshall, a mayoral candidate this year, noted on his campaign website under the heading "Our Achievements" that the council had identified funding streams outside the council purse and a public/private/central government partnership was under discussion.

Few councillors knew about the potential for government funds for the multimillion-dollar development, placed on hold until after the election because of timing issues around a decision on a potential site.

Councillors elected under the Hands Up banner three years ago, led by Mr Marshall, placed progression of a performing arts centre as a priority project.

Deputy Mayor and rival mayoral candidate Rachel Reese has hit out at the comments, saying she was unaware of any discussion at all at the council table, and discussion about attracting government money for the project was never an agenda item.

A brief survey of several other councillors revealed few knew of the opportunity.

"It seems a bit premature to be indicating it was a successful negotiation. I'm just surprised to see it. If it had reached the point of succeeding, I would have thought the council might know, but there's no mandate from the council on this," Ms Reese said.

Mr Marshall said that "with the greatest respect", all he had done was indicate that Arts Minister Chris Finlayson, whom he "knew quite well", supported Nelson and its plans to get a performing arts centre up and running.

"What I'm saying is that there's an indication from the current government they would support us. I don't know to what degree – the project is still on the drawing board."

Mr Marshall said that "in the fullness of time" he would share the item with the council, but given his role as mayor and his enthusiasm for the project, he felt it was appropriate at this stage to pursue the project alone.

Nelson MP Nick Smith confirmed there had been some discussion between himself, the arts minister and Kerry Marshall about central government support for a performing arts centre, but it was "very preliminary" and there was no current budget set aside.

Dr Smith said he had talked about the matter with Mr Marshall's predecessor, Paul Matheson, and he emphasised the discussions were very preliminary.

"Discussions are only in the very early stages and there's no firm proposal by the council, or no budget," he said.

Dr Smith added that he was more motivated about trying to get a conference centre because he saw it as an important part of Nelson's economic recovery.

Mr Marshall declined to say who the potential private partner in the project might be.

"I can't say but there are a number of possibilities. We have done a lot of work with a number of people and we have looked at a number of sites.

"There were various preferences and the outcome of that is that there's been some dialogue between us," he said.

Other Nelson mayoral candidates had mixed views on Mr Marshall's stance.

Mike Ward said it was "election time", and it was "totally reasonable" for mayors and council candidates to say what their aspirations were.

He was tired of the view that the public and media felt politicians were "trying to put one over them at all times", when creative and imaginative politicians always looked for opportunities to advance their cause.

Aldo Miccio said he was not surprised by the mayor's statement, and he did not see anything wrong with it.

In the end, it was up to the council to make a decision on what it wanted on behalf of ratepayers.

Gary Watson said Mr Marshall's timing was interesting, and it was unusual that he had chosen to pursue the project alone.

- © Fairfax NZ News