Council meets with MPs for communication

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 8, Issue 380, 2 April 1991, Page 3

Council meets with MPs for communication

A meeting took place in the Beehive, Wellington, last week which should greatly improve the lines of communication bejween local authorities and the final decision makers in Parliament. Representing the Ruapehu District Council were its mayor Garrick

Workman and its chief executive executive, Cliff Houston. Representing the Wanganui District Council were its mayor Chas Poynter and its chief executive Colin Whitlock. The Manawatu-Wan-ganui Regional Council - of which the two are a

part - was represented by its chairman Don Linklater and its chief executive Reg Barrett. They met with Jim Bolger (Prime Minister and Member for King Country), John Falloon (Minister of Agriculture), Denis Marshall (Member for Rangitikei) and Ian Peters (Member

for Tongariro). The purpose of the meeting, as Mayor Garrick Workman explained to councillors at the Ruapehu District Council at their meeting , was to set up a pattern and means of communication between Parliament and Local Authorities that would be more co-

operative and less confrontational. The subject on which Garrick Workman addressed the meeting was:'unemployment and forestry development'. In his address he told the parliamentary representatives that Government assistance was required to address the dual issues of chronic and increasing unemployment together with the non-utilisation of the Ruapehu region's land resources. He explained that unemployment is a major social issue in the area and there seems to be no indications of improvement within the forseeable future. On the other hand, he pointed out, a significant land resource re-

mains unutilised in the Ruapehu District. The land in question is mainly Maori-owned although other usable land

is held by the crown, the Council and by private owners. And, while it remains unutilised it is Turnpage4