Dillon will fight to keep pier museum bid afloat

Tauranga's "nervous conservative rump" has been blamed for the council election clean-out that sealed the fate of the controversial museum-on-a-pier project.
Defeated councillor Mary Dillon has pledged to fight for the project, blaming the axing of the downtown waterfront site on election candidates who pushed the buttons of the city's "nervous conservative rump".
She said these people were encouraged to believe that spending was going to get out of control, whereas everything was moving at the right pace with extremely modest rate increases forecasted in the 10-year plan.
Mrs Dillon said these forecasts were less than the 2 per cent rates cap advocated by some successful candidates _ and encompassed funding the planned $23.5 million waterfront museum and the $41 million sport and exhibition centre at Baypark.
She heaped criticism on the speed by which the new council last week voted 8-2 to stop funding the museum-on-a-pier project _ effectively putting the museum back into the melting pot.
Mrs Dillon said the least she expected was that the report delivered to the meeting by museum governing board chairman Michael Jones would have prompted councillors to postpone making a decision for a few days while they chewed over the details.
She said it was a courtesy extended by the former council when Tauranga motorsport enthusiast Maurice O'Reilly delivered a strong submission opposing the council's bylaw outlawed boy racers from entering city industrial areas at night.
The result might have been the same but at least it would have shown that newly elected councillors who knew nothing about the museum project had an open mind, she said.
Instead the council "failed miserably" and acted with "total irresponsibility", she said.
Mrs Dillon insisted that the only way to test the merits of the waterfront site would have been through a resource consent hearing before independent commissioners.
She has vowed to continue to fight for the waterfront site, saying it was the key to Tauranga getting a highly successful museum.
Mrs Dillon feared short-term political objectives meant the city would end up with a "cheap and nasty" museum with little public appeal.
The waterfront became the preferred site for the museum because of its symbolism sitting at the confluence of the land and the water. Tangata Whenua and European settlers both came from the sea and when they saw the land they immediately understood its value for a settlement, she said.
"That's why it was called the Bay of Plenty ... it celebrates what we are."
Mrs Dillon said the waterfront location would have given the museum a huge "wow factor".