Dannevirke ratepayers want answers, community board told

Craig Ellmers and John Schrader: there are a lot of unhappy people in Dannevirke. Photo / Dave Murdoch

There was a lot of discontent among Dannevirke residents, a meeting of the Dannevirke Community Board was told.

John Schrader, interim chairman of the newly formed Dannevirke Ratepayers and Residents Association, said he had heard at a meeting that there were a lot of people who were not happy.

The current water restrictions and problems with the Dannevirke impounded supply were the main issues.

He offered the board an extensive list of questions concentrating mainly on the impounded supply including design, financial information and documentation.

Schrader was asked to provide the written list so that the questions could be forwarded to council staff in a request for information under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

Council would have 20 working days to respond under a statutory timeline.

The board members wanted clarification on the progress of the association.

Secretary Craig Ellmers said final touches were being put on the constitution, which would be adopted at an upcoming meeting.

A public meeting would be held in a month or so.

Board member Terry Hynes asked what area the association would cover.

Ellmers said it would cover a 10km radius from the centre of Dannevirke.

When asked what the objectives of the association were, he responded that it was a "conduit for the council and the community board to facilitate channelling information to and from the residents and ratepayers."

Hynes said he was concerned about duplication of services and getting feedback from ratepayers.

"I want to find out if there are some real issues you have faced in getting information from the council. Water is obviously a key one. If you are not able to get the information then obviously we need to be working on that."

He said the council had a "very good" communication process, where people could contact councillors or the community board.

Schrader said that in a ratepayers' meeting, people could voice their concerns or ideas and a representative from the association could then approach the community board to voice those ideas or advise concerns that needed to be addressed.

"We want to work in conjunction with the community board, with the council, to make sure the ratepayers are getting bang for their buck, and to be responsible for spending. And just to keep everything on an even keel."

Schrader said the reason he had started the association was because his footpath was getting smashed up due to water leaking from a toby about two years ago.

"I asked the council to fix it. They said no."

He said he was told it was due to a car driving over the concrete.

"I got nowhere. I got my back up. I thought if ratepayers were going to council and getting that sort of response, then I'm going to get a collective together and we can have a voice."

Ellmers said it was a fundamental lack of information coming back out that had got a lot of people upset.

Hynes said he was concerned about the lack of information as he felt council did its best to ensure people did get that information.

He said it was important to get feedback so it could be seen if there was a glitch in the system.