Political parties can now go to market

BY TRACY NEAL

The rules around the presence of political parties at the Nelson Market have been relaxed.

The Nelson City Council has reversed an earlier decision that denied Labour list MP for Nelson, Maryan Street, a caravan spot at the Saturday market.

The rules had allowed only the electorate MP to have a site at the market. Nelson MP Nick Smith meets with constituents each week at a caravan on a loading zone outside land that is leased to the market.

The council said the site was approved on the basis that Dr Smith, as the electorate MP, could provide a service to constituents.

The council agreed last week to allocate sites to political parties in Montgomery Square between 8am and 12.30pm on Saturdays.

The guidelines include that one site be allocated on request to each political party that has a candidate standing in the Nelson electorate, or a list MP representing the Nelson electorate, area or region.

The sites will be adjacent to the market's lease boundary, and no parking charges will apply.

Market owner Nita Knight said she had not heard from the council and could not comment, but she preferred that the market remained politically neutral.

Ms Street said yesterday she was looking forward to having a visible presence at the market after Easter. "I commend the council for coming into the MMP era, albeit a little delayed."

Dr Smith, who has attended the market for 12 years, said today he was "quite relaxed" about the council's decision.

He said the market was a good place to connect with Nelson residents, particularly at weekends, which suited most people who worked weekdays.

Councillor Gail Collingwood said the situation had not been fair, and did not support the MMP philosophy.

Councillor Rachel Reese presented the notion of motion at last week's meeting to alter the council's stance on site allocations. She said two years ago that she did not feel it was "core council business" to be allocating spaces to political parties, but she felt that this time, it was a reasonable request.

Cr Reese said that if it turned out that the move was not self-regulating in terms of the impact on the market, the option remained open to the council to regulate the terms under which politicians could operate. "They won't be hawking their views, but in the event that happened, we are in the privileged position of being able to give and take away."

Councillor Ian Barker said in 2008 that opening up the market as a platform for political parties was likely to "contaminate a tourist asset". He said he remained opposed to the idea. "I don't like seeing the market politicised."

Councillor Derek Shaw supported the intent, but was concerned at the potential impact on the public.

Councillor Ali Boswijk said she thought it was valuable for any community to have such direct access to its MPs.

"They're like TV – you don't have to look at them if you don't want to."

- © Fairfax NZ News