It is time to ask the authorities who look in to inappropriate practices with Government Agencies to look at how the NPDC is operating.

OK people – we are the Big Voice of Ratepayers and Renters who are affected by decisions made at the NPDC.

It is time for hundreds – if not thousands of us – to speak up and be heard – and ask the authorities who look in to inappropriate practices with Government Agencies to look at what has been done in New Plymouth in the last few days.

The Alliance has written to the Ombudsman and provided facts and figures and a copy of the legal advice we received about this situation. So, the Ombudsman has the details and documents to support the Alliance’s view for Ratepayers and Renters.

We think it would be really helpful if the people of New Plymouth, who are not happy with how Neil Holdom’s appointment to the Water CCO position has been handled, also write to the Ombudsman to support our complaint.

We know people are not happy about this – BUT – you must be polite and you must not swear. The Ombudsman’s Office did not create this situation and they can find a legally binding solution. So, we must be polite.

This only needs to be a few short statements – there are 4 boxes that need to be filled in – but we need hundreds and hundreds of people to fill in the online form in the next few days. We are trying to get the Ombudsman’s Office attention - in the hope they will act quickly for us on this.

The link to the online form is here:

https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/get-help-public/make-complaint-members-public

Tick the option “I have a complaint about an act or decision by a public sector agency”

Box 1. Summarise in one or two sentences: What did the agency do?

(What is the main thing you are not happy about? If you can, be specific about the act or decision).

You may want to mention the secrecy of this decision, the lack of transparency with the entire process, the lack of conflict of interest being mentioned in the agenda for the meeting, the Mayor who excused himself from the closed meeting, was the person who set up a closed meeting so the public would not know about the position he was offered.

And, any other issues you have with this situation.

Box 2. Why are you concerned?

Politely tell them why you are concerned in your own words.

Box 3. What steps have you taken to try and resolve your complaint?

Many of you have written to the Council on multiple occasions, over several years, and have been ignored and not replied to. Tell the ombudsman if this has happened to you.

Or, tell them you are writing as you fully support the New Plymouth Ratepayers Alliance complaint, and you are aware we have asked for information from the NPDC which has not been provided.

Box 4. What outcome do you want?

You may want to choose from SOME of what is below:

• You want this situation investigated.
• You want the tenure of Neil Holdom and Gareth Green investigated, as this situation exposes red flags about what other decisions have been made in an inappropriate way at the NPDC.
• You want Neil Holdoms appointment as the CEO of the Water CCO, by Gareth Green, overturned.
• You want a fully transparent application process to appoint an appropriate CEO for the Water CCO.
• You want an investigation of the entire process to appoint the new Board of the Water CCO to assess whether the process to do this has been followed correctly.
• You want the NPDC to provide a Constitution and a Statement of Expectation for how the Board of the Water CCO will operate. You want these documents to be used to assess the suitability of the Board which was appointed on 10^th October 2025, and if necessary after the assessment, change members of the Board.

Fill in the 4 boxes – provide your contact details – and only fill in the personal information that you want to provide – you can leave those fields blank.

You don’t have to attach any other documents unless you want to do so.

Many of us feel badly manipulated after yesterday’s behaviour by Neil Holdom and Gareth Green.

Take a stand and ask the Ombudsman to look in to this situation for all of us.

Please share this far and wide.

Thanks everyone.