West Coast councillor voted off committees
By local democracy reporter Lois Williams
West Coast Regional Councillor Allan Birchfield has been given the cold shoulder in a restructure of council committees.
The Greymouth gold-miner was deposed as council chairperson in April last year, after allegedly leaking confidential employment information to news media after a stand-off with then chief executive Heather Mabin.
He was replaced as council chairperson by his deputy, Peter Haddock, and formally censured by the council.
The council on Tuesday (September 10) approved a revamp of its committees and updated their terms of reference – but left their former chair off most of them.
He objected strongly.
“Three thousand people voted for me, I’m an elected member and you’ve excluded me from most committees.”
Councillor Brett Cummings said he was unhappy the council’s two iwi reps would be on the committee, possibly with voting rights, while an elected councillor was excluded.
Haddock reminded him that Mr Birchfield had been formally censured, limiting his right to attend some meetings.
Birchfield is still on the council’s Resource Management committee but is banished from the confidential public-excluded part of meetings.
Some previous attempts to eject him from meetings have been unsuccessful.
But under the new structure he is not a member of the newly-named Operations Committee (formerly Infrastructure and Governance); the Risks and Assurance committee; the new Corporate Services committee or the Remuneration and Employment committee.
If he wanted that revoked he or any other councillor could come back to the council and ask it to reconsider, Haddock said.
Birchfield earlier told LDR he was not worried about being excluded from most of the committees, but was determined to challenge his banishment from the Operations group.
“That committee makes all the decisions about our flood banks and infrastructure and deals with our special rating district groups - I go to all those meetings.”
As one of three Greymouth councillors representing the Regional Council on the Grey Special Rating District Joint Committee, Birchfield said he would fight his ejection.
“I challenged you at the Grey District over the right to exclude me and you said you had a legal opinion – where is it?” he asked Haddock.
The chairperson told Birchfield he was being disruptive and closed the discussion, advising him to seek his own legal opinion and come back to the council if he wanted the censure lifted.
The council approved the new committees and the meetings arrangement.
*LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Kalle
"Sports and travelling run in the family, and that's kind of what's led me to come to New Zealand."
"I grew up in a small town in Finland. My dad was involved with sports all his life, he was a shot putter, discus thrower, powerlifter, we traveled quite a bit when I was a kid. He never mentioned much of the rugby days. He just said he broke both of his shin bones playing rugby, so he said, ‘never play the sport, It's crazy.’
I started playing when I was 18. I played my first cap for the Finnish national team in 2014, we won the Finnish championship with my club. Rugby is not a big thing in Finland.
I moved here to play rugby in 2017. The club that wanted me to come over was Methven Rugby Club. They got me here and they were like, ‘what do you do for work? I’d just finished chef school in Finland. ‘We'll get you a job at Mount Hutt as a chef, you can do that while you play rugby with us.’ I said, ‘Perfect. Yeah, I'm in’.
I've always loved food. My mum was an amazing cook, and still is. When I was studying tourism I worked in some hotels in Finland, and I saw how the chef's worked. I just loved the kitchen vibe and I was like, Yeah, that’d be something I'd love to do.
I've had more of a culinary journey In New Zealand than in Finland. I started at Mount Hutt, after that I worked at The Dubliner in Methven. I worked as a senior pizza chef at Sal’s for maybe six months then worked as chef de partie at Cellar Door. At Eliza's Manor, I worked myself up to a junior sous chef. Then the opportunity came to work my first head chef job at Moon Under Water.
We're privileged to have a busy atmosphere, we can try new things and get a bit creative. There are no TV’s, just come here with your family or with your mates, play board games, to socialise.
I really want to drive the local food and ingredients through the menu. We don't mind spending more for quality ingredients as long as it's supporting New Zealand businesses. We just love to use local. And it's pub food, but I feel like it's elevated.
I play club rugby here for the Christchurch Football Club, the oldest club in New Zealand and I still play regularly for the Finnish national team, whenever they can fly me over to play."
- Kalle
View more stories, or nominate someone: @humansofchch
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Have your say on Canterbury’s public transport
By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter
Canterbury residents are being encouraged to have their say on public transport in the region.
Environment Canterbury has released its draft public transport plan and is seeking submissions.
The draft plan outlines a vision for public transport in the region and notes key priorities such as improving the environment, growing patronage, accessibility, innovation and technology, and affordability.
‘‘Public transport takes many forms with communities across our region,’’ councillor Peter Scott said.
‘‘With limited funding available, we need to make sure we make the best decisions to deliver a public transport network that is integrated with urban development, innovative and meets the needs of new and existing customers.
‘‘Effective public transport is the lifeline that connects us to work, school, recreation and our friends and family, so it is important we get this right.’’
The Canterbury’s population is growing and by 2050, it is projected 700,000 people will be living in Greater Christchurch.
The draft plan covers public transport for the region, which includes the Metro service (Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri), MyWay by Metro in Timaru, Total Mobility and Community Vehicle Trusts.
It was developed in partnership with local councils and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.
Environment Canterbury has been planning to step up its public transport efforts by increasing the frequency of existing services and introducing mass rapid transport in Greater Christchurch.
But these plans have been stalled by a lack of public transport funding in the Government’s 2024-27 National Land Transport Programme.
A proposal to allow people to travel with domestic pets is also included in the draft plan.
Having pets on buses has been successfully trial in other parts of New Zealand, councillor Joe Davies said.
‘‘We’re keen to understand what controls are needed for our bus users in Greater Christchurch and Timaru to be comfortable with pets on public transport.
It is proposed to allow adult passengers to bring a single pet on board, as long it is in an approved carrier at off-peak times, weekdays between 9am and 3pm or after 6pm, and during weekends.
Another proposal would loosen those restrictions in future to allow for leashed and muzzled dogs and increasing the limit to two pets per passenger.
‘‘We want to gauge how people feel about these proposals. Now is the time to have your say,’’ Davies said.
Submissions close on Thursday, October 24.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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