Gore district councillor blasts council for lack of consultation -

Tuesday, 10 November 2020

Gore district councillor Doug Grant learnt that the council planned to trial the closure of the street his business was on by reading about it in the newspaper. (file photo)

Gore district councillor Doug Grant has blasted his own council about a perceived lack of consultation after he learnt that the street his business was on could be closed to traffic, by reading about it in the newspaper.

Grant raised the issue at a full Gore District Council meeting on Tuesday, where he said several business people and building owners had raised the issue with him since an article about the council’s Streets Alive project appeared in The Southland Times last week.

The possible closure of Irk St, in downtown Gore, was listed in a list of projects that could be trialled as part of the council’s Streets Alive project in the agenda of the council’s community and strategy meeting on November 4, and was mentioned in the newspaper's report of that meeting.

Grant is not on that committee, and was not at the meeting.

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At the council meeting on Tuesday, he queried why, at the council’s previous meeting on October 13, chief executive Steve Parry had said the council needed to go into committee to discuss a water main replacement because residents had not been consulted with, yet the trial closure or part-closure of Irk St to traffic had been included on a public meeting agenda, before the business owners had been told of it.

“We’re not playing games here, we’re playing with people's livelihoods,’’ Grant said.

Irk Street could be pedestrianised as part of a trial for the Gore District Council's Streets Alive project.

“No-one has been consulted, no-one has been asked.’’

He asked for an amendment to the recommendation that the report be received, and said that building and business owners should be consulted with about changes to Irk St should be added.

Parry said it was his understanding that there would be discussion with affected people before trials, but he said he could see where Cr Grant was coming from.

“Streets Alive was quite a public process involving feedback from the community,’’ Parry said.

Mayor Tracy Hicks said that in any area that the council was looking at changing, there would be a discussion with affected partners.

Community and strategy committee chairman councillor Richard McPhail said his understanding was that there was a community group that was going to assist with implementation of the trials, and he did not think that there was an issue with the consultation that had been carried out.

An amendment, which recommended that the report be received and that any affected parties in the vicinity of where Streets Alive projects were being carried out would be consulted with, was carried.

Launched earlier this year with $900,000 funding from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, Streets Alive is a community driven project focusing on making Gore safer, more accessible and more people-friendly for everyone to move around, and to increase the town’s vibrancy.

The council was finalising the specific trial projects, and has said previously that it would be talking with any stakeholders who could be closely impacted before trials are announced. Trials will begin in the new year.