Palmerston North Reserves Empowering Amendment Bill

In February of this year the Palmerston North City Council placed a public notice in the local newspaper advertising the fact that they intended to promote a local Bill called the Palmerston North Reserves Empowering Amendment Bill. This passage of this Bill would have provided a mechanism to amend the Palmerston North Reserves Empowering Act 1966 thereby allowing the Council to sell the old Manawatu Bowling Club land on the corner of Park Road and Fitzherbert Avenue.

This 1.4 hectare (four acre) site consists of four lots with the former Manawatu Bowing Club previously located on lots 1 and 2 and the Manawatu Tennis Club courts currently located on lots 3 and 4. The Manawatu Petanque Club have constructed at their own expense courts on part of lot 2 and also used to use the adjacent now derelict hall.

This public park was protected from sale under the Palmerston North Reserves Act 1922 and the successful passage of this Bill would have enabled the Council to sell the land if, as they stated, “it becomes surplus to the Council’s requirement”. The Reserve protection on the land would have been lifted. The Council intended to use the proceeds of the sale of lots 1 and 2 to reduce the rates bill by 0.2 percent

The Bill was subsequently introduced into Parliament in March of this year by local Member of Parliament Steve Maherey with its introduction being opposed by the Greens and the Maori Party. The Bill was then referred to the Local Government and Environment Select Committee who called for submissions on the Bill. Five submissions against the Bill were received, with three asking to speak to the Hearings held in Wellington on 26 July 2007.

By way of background, in October 2006, 10 Councillors signed a Notice of Motion to revoke previous resolutions made in June 2005 to sell the land. This motion was initially successful until a Councillor asked if Bills could be withdrawn. The Chief Executive at the time, Mr Paul Wylie, responded by saying the bills could not be withdrawn. The motion was put to the vote again and lost. We told the Council that this advice was incorrect as bills can be withdrawn at any stage and the bill had not been introduced into the House at this time.

Alongside the matter of the Bill, a proposed sale of the land had been included in the Council’s 10 Year Plan for 2006/16 and in this years Annual Plan 2007/08. There had been little public support for the sale of this land as indicated by the number of the submissions to this Annual Plan and a vote taken at an Awapuni Ward Committee Meeting in March of this year.

The Manawatu Tennis Club had initially not been aware of the Bill until they saw the matter on the Awapuni Ward Agenda. They subsequently negotiated a new 5 year lease with a 5 year right of renewal In the meantime the popular Manawatu Petanque Club was being forced off their site by the Council so that the land could be sold, we suspect, to commercial interest.

The Manawatu Bowling Club had abandoned their use of the land some years ago due to falling numbers of members. They amalgamated with another club. The responsibility for looking after the hall on the site and the surrounding land reverted back to the Palmerston North City Council. The hall and surrounding grounds have been allowed to deteriorate due to lack of maintenance. Utility services to the hall have been cut off. The hall has the potential to be a public facility but the Council has said it would cost $300,000 to bring it up to standard. Many have said that this is an inflated figure.

Matter finally came to head when we heard that there was a recommendation on the Order Paper of the City Council meeting of Monday 27 August to withdraw the Bill, stating “The Council advise the Select Committee that it wishes to withdraw the Palmerston North Reserve Empowering Amendment Bill”. This recommendation was written in response to a letter from the Select Committee to the Council which basically gave the Council a way out. We think that had the Bill gone to a second reading it would have been voted down which would have been an even bigger embarrassment to the Council.

The letter from the Select Committee chairwoman listed three points of concern. Firstly that there was uncertainty as to a community mandate behind the Bill, secondly that Councillors were incorrectly advised that Bills could not be withdrawn, and thirdly they made the point that it would be appropriate for Council to be represented by its most senior officers at future Select Committee hearings. The withdrawal of the Bill was put to the vote and passed but with an amendment pointing out that Mr John Annabell, who spoke to the Hearing on behalf of the Council, was the Council’s senior legal officer.

Those of us who had opposed this Bill were very happy with this outcome but suspect some on the Council may not give up and repeat the saga at a latter date if they are allowed to get the chance. This sorry saga also proves the importance of perusing the Public Notices sections of local newspapers and keeping a weather eye out for what is happening in Council.

We now await the next stage of consultation on this land with the hope the site should be retained as a local public park and the hall retained as a public hall. The land should be included as part of the consultation on the Esplanade complex which is currently getting underway. We need to call a halt to this whittling away of our public green space.