The Public Process Hits Rock Bottom

Here in Far North New Zealand, we have just seen a similar appropriation of public property, on a much larger scale, to that described in my previous post – with a far less happy outcome.

My nearest small town, Kerikeri, had a Memorial Hall – a refurbished packing shed complex with stage and auditorium, gifted to the Far North District Council many years ago to be the Kerikeri Memorial Hall for soldiers lost in the two World Wars.

It was a good venue, and I have fond memories of designing and painting sets for stage productions there during my holidays from University.  It was the town’s theatre for many years, and hosted a heap of events including substantial Art and Craft Exhibitions over the Christmas holidays, and the world-famous Kerikeri Piano Competition, annually.

It was a simple but serviceable building that the Far North District Council left to rot. That should never have happened. The same thing occurred here in Kaeo until a small group of public-minded citizens got togther, sought and got financial assistance (not from the FNDC note) and put in the hard yards to recover the Kaeo Memorial Hall from a far worse state of disrepair and all-out abuse.

Whether the Kerikeri Memorial Hall could have been done up and developed for the community uses suggested by members of the public over recent months, is not strictly the issue.  There’s a crying need for it – this little town, busily chasing the reputation of being New Zealand’s “top small town” is no different from any other – it is fighting drug abuse in young people, daily.

HOWEVER… Several years ago, the Far North District Council set up an independent trading arm called Far North Holdings.  Notwithstanding that the Hall was originally gifted to the Council as a public memorial, Council saw fit to pass it over lock, stock and barrel into the hands of the Far North Holdings company.

To cut a long story short, Far North Holdings announced it was going to  divest itself of the property.  It was put on the market, to the horror of many local residents. The pretext was that the building was no longer viable and was surplus to requirements because Kerikeri now has a new (not yet fully completed) plushy venue – The Arts Centre.  Hmmm.  Where do local kids in dire need of something to do fit into that?

There were protests, of course – and petitions.   The last petition, sactioned by Council, was ignored because Council elected not to play by its own rules.  The stance of Far North Holdings was that if the public wanted the Hall, they would have to buy it at the market price – about $1.05million.  Council and the Mayor reiterated that money was required to finish off The Arts Centre as priority number one.  Miscalculation of priorities, I’d say.

Just as the tangata whenua threw their weight in behind the movement to retain the Hall and it began to look as if there could be some daylight at the end of the tunnel, a motion was passed in Council condemning the building as unsound and demolition began literally overnight. I have quite honestly never been so appalled, and I don’t doubt many people were equally shocked.  No doubt the ratepayers – again – footed the bill to have their own property destroyed.

A builder who went on site and inspected the Kerikeri Memorial Hall building while it was being demolished commented that the building was sound.

This Council wantonly destroyed a public asset given to it by the ratepayers in good faith.  Ironically, as a Council, it was elected quite recently to make a change for the better in local government, by ratepayers hoping to be listened to at last: hoping at least for fair play.  Well, well…

No doubt the rationale behind all this was that there were Councilors who wanted the glory of finally getting the Arts Centre finished.  That actually won’t count for much in the long run.  There are far bigger issues at stake here.

“Lest We Forget?”   Oh yes……

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