Last week we presented our verbal submission to the NPDC for the Significance and Engagement policies – we asked for 8 amendments to the policies – including a legal opinion highlighting risks and costs with Co-Governance.
On Thursday 12th November we presented our verbal submission to the NPDC for the Significance and Engagement policies for both the Wai Hononga Water Company policy and the Council’s policy.
These are legally binding policies with how the New Plymouth Community will be engaged with and we asked our Lawyers in Wellington to look through the policies from a legal view.
A few legal points were raised, we raised issues we weren’t comfortable with, and we also presented a legal opinion about Co-Governance of the Water Company to the elected officials, raising concerns with risks and costs with this arrangement.
- We noticed a number of our supporters sent submissions about these policies as well, and we want to thank everyone who took the time to put forward their views.
- We have attached a written copy of our speech, and a link to a video of the speech, here:
People may recall a few months ago we asked for extra protections for the Community with the Statement of Expectations for the Water company. We managed to convince all the elected officials to add clauses confirming how the community will be included with the Water Company decisions, rather than just the 2 vague clauses in the original document.
We have asked for 8 changes to the 2 Significance and Engagement policies to improve how the community will be engaged with going forward, and most of this is asking for more transparency about the decisions being made. We will advise of the outcome when the final decision is made.
- We never expected as an Alliance that we would be in a position to be asking for legal opinions to check the recommendations that are being made to Elected Officials by Council staff, in Council documents.
- About a month ago we asked if people could help us with donations for our legal fund, and we thank everyone who was able to donate. We have now used all of our legal donations on the legal opinion we presented yesterday.
We had no idea we would be working with our Lawyers 3 times since the election last year, and we have no idea what may come up that needs a check from a legal view going forward.
We would like to keep a small reserve specifically for legal work, if people are in a position to help us with this. Legal donations go into a separate account and are used only when we need to deal with a legal issue.
On the topic of donations, the end of year is also a time we renew our web hosting, we’ve had meeting room hire costs through the year, ongoing stationery and printing costs, and we would appreciate any general donations to help with our ongoing running costs.
Every donation helps - $2 - $5 - $10 - $20 - $50 - $100 – whatever you may be able to help with - will be helpful for us.
Please make deposits into our TSB Bank Account:
Name of Account: New Plymouth District Ratepayers Alliance
The Bank Account for Legal Donations is:
15 3943 0039254 01
Please use the words “Legal Fund” as a reference
The bank account for General Donations is:
15 3943 0039254 00
Please use the word “General” as a reference
*Please note donations are not Tax Deductible.
Posted: 13 Nov 2026