Uproar over Coromandel funding cuts

Capital works in Thames-Coromandel District are grinding to a halt as the district council pulls funding for all but essential services.

Community board chairpeople around the Coromandel Peninsula are calling foul over the move and accusing the council of mismanagement.

Wednesday's move to trim just over half a million dollars off the council's much-reduced capital works budget for the current financial year was passed by just one vote.

It is aimed at helping to keep 2010-2011 rates to between 4 and 5 per cent instead of the projected 7.57 per cent councillors approved in the district's 10-year plan earlier this year. Since then depreciation has added another 1 per cent.

Councillors such as Coromandel's John Morrissey say ratepayers cannot afford this.

Capital work cuts will reduce the rates rise by 1 per cent. Staffing cuts are among other options being considered.

Community representatives and community board chairpeople pleaded with councillors on Wednesday to retain spending on such projects as the completion of noise control in Whangamata Memorial Hall, a youth park in Tairua, and land for a new cemetery in Mercury Bay.

Margaret McDougall from Tairua-Pauanui said the viability of communities was at stake.

Peter Kerr from Whangamata said the new cuts were a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived problem and Mercury Bay Community Board chairperson Murray McLean questioned why councillors had suddenly changed their minds.

Councillors voting for the cuts were: John Morrissey, Bill Barclay, Dal Minogue, Strat Peters and Adrian Catran. Mayor Philippa Barriball, Noel Hewlett, Dirk Sieling and Jan Bartley voted against them.