Whanganui council gets backing for Government funding on significant galleries

A call from Whanganui district councillors to push for Government funding of museums and galleries of national significance has been largely backed by councils around the country.

The remit, put forward by Whanganui District Council, received 91 per cent support at the Local Government New Zealand annual general meeting on Sunday.

"That was really well received, and I'm really happy how that went," Whanganui mayor Hamish McDouall said.

He was joined at the AGM in Wellington by councillors Charlie Anderson and Rob Vinsen.

"People totally understood it's about New Zealand Inc, it's about nationally and internationally important collections that are vulnerable because of only relying on ratepayer input and fundraising," McDouall said.

"The photographic collection at the Sarjeant Gallery is so important and it's visited by international researchers quite regularly, and should be at least partially funded by the government."

Another Whanganui council remit that passed with 73 per cent of votes was for the government to investigate the introduction of strengthened rules for the safe use of mobility scooters.

Meanwhile, a remit to introduce legislation to ban the sale of fireworks to the public and end private use was passed with 67 per cent of support, which included Whanganui.

The remit was put forward by Auckland Council, with its councillors highlighting the distress fireworks cause to people and animals.

The result of Whanganui's recent fireworks survey, which found 71 per cent of participants wanted to see fireworks restricted to public displays, was discussed by Vinsen at the AGM.

Whanganui's remit for the selection of all independent commissioners for Resource Management Act hearings be centralised failed at the vote, with 76 per cent of the local government sector being against it.

McDouall said he was annoyed and disappointed with the result.

"I find it hard regional and district councils can select an independent commissioner, because there's the potential for that to seem like bias, even if it isn't bias, it would've been easily fixed by centralising the selection.

"It would also encourage development of skills for younger or new commissioners, because at the moment that's pretty much a closed shop."

Once a remit is passed it becomes official policy of LGNZ.

A topic that wasn't discussed at the conference, but which got mayors talking over the weekend, was Horowhenua Mayor Michael Feyen pushing for the creation of a mayoral political party to contest parliamentary elections.

Feyen pitched the idea to 78 territorial and regional councils after having difficulty getting appointments with MPs.

McDouall said it was not a move he supported.

"I think it would be very difficult, just the amount of time you'd spend dealing with municipalities, and Whanganui is not that big in relative terms so other mayors have even bigger constituencies.

"I just don't see how you could spend three days in Wellington and the rest of the time doing the appropriate job for the district."