LETTERS TO EDITOR

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 16, 15 September 1987, Page 2

LETTERS TO EDITOR

September 5 Rangataua Ratepayers Meeting May I say that I was surprised and dismayed by Councillor Gavin Jones' suggestion, during a Ruapehu Radio interview on 9 September, that I was a liar when I had said that I did not receive a proper Notice of Meeting. I did not. Nobody did. What any competent professional in Councillor Jones' position should do, when sending out a Notice of Meeting, is to do just that - send out a circular headed "Notice of Meeting". What Councillor Jones did was to send out a circular to some - not all - ratepayers headed "Rangataua Sewerage - Estimated Lump Sum Contribution", telling them how much the sewerage scheme was going to cost them. Part of the way through this circular, (in paragraph three, to be precise,) is - almost as an aside - "Council proposes to call a meeting..." The meeting was never "called", because no Notice of Meeting was ever sent out. Some residents e.g. Miss Winnie Kershaw, and ratepayers, e.g. Jack Lewin, never even received the circular that was sent out. But a meeting was held, on 5 September, and with far fewer numbers than would have been the case if proper Notice of Meeting had been given, and deSpite the fact that Councillor Jones conceded face-to-face to me on Friday 11 September that he had thought that both the Chairman of the Rangataua Ratepayers Association (Mr Jack Lewin, Barrister & Solicitor, overseas) and its Secretary, (me, Chartered Accountant, illness) would be absent from Rangataua at that time, 5 September. Or because of that fact, perhaps? Mr Lewin had earlier asked for the meeting to be held on 12 September, (after his arrival back from Australia) but had been told by Councillor Jones that "Notices of Meeting" for 5

September had already been sent out. But of course they had not been sent out. May I make one final point about Councillor Jones' credibility? At the 5 September meeting a question had to be asked three times before he finally agreed that this Council had already in fact taken the decision to install sewerage in Rangataua against the wishes of the true majority of ratepayers in the township. But at the beginning of his Ruapehu Radio interview he was again asked the same question, again three times, and this time he came out with a "categorical No". Then, later in the same interview, he twice tripped himself up - first when he said: "The only way we see to right it (the hypotheti-

cal health nuisance problem) is to simply grab the nettle, and redress it, and take the opportunity of putting in place a sewerage system ..." and, second, in response to a question about the sewerage scheme applying only to a restricted area: "The area that it is going (to go) in is the - or - that it could be put into - is a defined ... etc". Who can one believe? What is happening? And why does Council not clear the Rangataua drains? Is it to try to create their own little health nuisance problem to redress?

Tim

Warmington

ACA, ACIS, AUA, AIINZ, ANZIM Secretary Rangataua Ratepayers Association