No quorum for council meeting

This morning's meeting failed to reach the quorum of seven members. Photo/Stephen Parker

For a meeting that was not supposed to go ahead at all, six Rotorua district councillors managed to drag out 30 minutes of discussion and debate in the Rotorua Lakes Council chamber this morning.

Yesterday, the Rotorua Daily Post reported that three councillors - Rob Kent, Mike McVicker and Peter Bentley - unhappy with the fact there was nothing on the agenda to discuss publicly decided not to attend the meeting in protest.

This morning's meeting failed to reach the quorum of seven members with mayor Steve Chadwick and councillor Trevor Maxwell away in China on official council business at a tourism conference.

Councillors Glenys Searancke and Janet Wepa were away on holiday, leaving deputy mayor Dave Donaldson and councillors Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, Tania Tapsell, Karen Hunt, Charles Sturt and Mark Gould to discuss issues of confidentiality and get a short, unplanned, update on noise issues surrounding the Lumbercube mill.

Mr Sturt also took the opportunity to voice his displeasure at the three councillors who boycotted the meeting while staff told councillors there would be some cost to ratepayers because the meeting had to be postponed.

There were four items on the agenda that were to be discussed confidentially, one of which required the presence of a lawyer who had travelled from Hamilton to be at the meeting.

Mrs Raukawa-Tait voiced her concern the meeting, that was not supposed to be a meeting, had moved into an opportunity for those councillors present to be updated by the council's lawyer and left before the Lumbercube update, described by meeting chairman Dave Donaldson as a "workshop", took place.

For a full report from today's meeting, read tomorrow's Rotorua Daily Post.