PAC: SECRECY

So, the Nelson City council are playing the secrecy game again.
The performing farce centre arrangements have fallen over, and that is politically embarrassing for council, so they are resorting to secrecy, claiming that the public think that the project is further ahead than it really is.
It is not as far ahead as the public think, because the project has fallen over again, and the public private partnership has evaporated, causing them to return to the drawing board.
But even though it has fallen over again, council are still trying to keep that project locked into the LTCCP, and that is a ridiculous planning sham.
The public private partnership project that was notified in the LTCCP has evaporated and no longer exists, and to pretend otherwise is a planning deceit.
But more importantly, that project cannot be replaced without going through a completely new planning round.
New notification and consultation is required because all the previous parameters and cost sharing and financial arrangements and implications have all so radically changed, that the existing project no longer meets any of the legislative planning requirements.
Because the nature of the project and the cost implications have all so radically changed, council is now required to renotify and reconsult the public before it can insert this new project into the LTCCP.
But it is impossible for council to meet the LTCCP legislative planning requirements to fully inform the ratepayers, if that very information and those very details are being withheld from the public and being kept secret.