News

It’s weird when you get involved in finding information about the Council, often over your morning coffee, and you’re looking for one thing, in this case a meeting date and time, and while looking for that, you discover a very tiny bit of information that is actually quite big.

This is one of those bits of information and a result of the Sports Hub project.

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They did a great job, did some good research on the candidates, and asked some great questions. There was a bit of humour thrown in - and a bit of jeering here and there from the crowd – from both sides.

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Here at the Alliance we have been making no secret that we need a majority of 8 people sitting around the NPDC Council table who will say no to the constant spending on projects we do not need at this time.

RNZ Local Democracy Reporting, in one paragraph of an article in the Daily News – which has absolutely no connection to the death threat event which occurred for Sam Bennett on Thursday 18th September - tries to imply – somehow – that the Ratepayers Alliance and the Taxpayer’s Union had some sort of influence on the alleged death threat Sam Bennett received last week.

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A few misleading things have been said in the last few weeks by officials who have been part of our Council over the last term.

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The New Plymouth Ratepayers Alliance was hammered in the media after our Second Mayors event, and scolded by David Bublitz, a would be Mayor in 2025.

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The second New Candidate event was held on Monday 15th September.

This event had 8 Candidates standing for the District Wide and Kaitake Ngamotu General Wards, and one Candidate from the North Ward.

And the Taxpayers Union made a highlighted 10 minute version of our Mayoral Event - which is very interesting to watch.

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Why are the Daily News, RNZ and David Bublitz saying such awful things about our team and our supporters ?

Because we ask very difficult questions ! We ask questions that expose the information behind the spin !

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This one consultation – if people don’t make a lot of noise to stop what is proposed – this will alter the future of how Local Government is managed in New Plymouth. The NPDC is planning to introduce a Council Bylaw which makes it possible to Co-Govern New Plymouth with IWI and pay them for that involvement – in all our suburbs.

Why did you not know the NPDC was consulting about this right now ?

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With 32 new people standing in 2025 we have 2 groups in new candidate events.

The first event was on 4th September with roughly half of the new Candidates, we will meet the other half on 15th September.

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BEFORE YOU VOTE – please try to get your head around how STV voting works – it is truly complicated.

With our “What to Know Before You Vote” series - today - we cover STV Voting.

The Short Version of STV Voting:

The STV Voting system is very complicated

Practice on a piece of paper before filling in your voting form

DO NOT tick the boxes

Write a number - Rank people in the order you want 1, 2, 3 etc

You don't have to put a number next to every name

Only vote for someone if you want them to be voted in as a Mayor or Councillor

If you vote for people you don't want, your votes for them can be transferred to other people on your list - so only vote for someone you want on Council.

Click on the blue heading above to find the longer version with more detail and a video

• Stratford submitters voted for an in-house business unit for LWDW.
• The NPDC voted for a CCO – and said “they would keep the door open for Stratford and South Taranaki - as they would have to join a regional CCO.”
• The Government Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) wrote to Stratford strongly suggesting they would have to join a CCO and use Government LGFA funding to do so.
• Stratford pushed back sending a sustainable plan to stay in-house
• It is looking hopeful an in-house model will be accepted by the DIA
• (The Daily News Story and our OIA to Stratford for a copy of the government letter are attached).
• A great story with a Mayor in Stratford with fortitude and good financial management ability.

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Some have been suggesting Act shouldn't be political and they shouldn't be endorsing Candidates for Local Elections.

Damon Fox points out you know he is endorsed by Act - nothing to hide - and if you don't like Act policies you know not to vote for him.

But other parties are they open about which Candidates are affiliated with them ? Not so much.

Click on the blue heading above to see what Damon Fox means.

We have an update about the Local Government Funding (LGFA) the NPDC uses for 95% of their borrowing. This is about the amount the proportion of rates income is, that has to be paid by New Plymouth Ratepayers as the guarantors on LGFA lending.

We don’t think you are going to like what we have to tell you – but please share this far and wide - so lots of people know how this works, and so lots of people understand why we need to vote for new Councillors who don’t want to keep using LGFA funding.

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What does “Urban Legend” mean:
“An urban legend is a modern form of folklore, often consisting of fictional stories that are spread by word of mouth and believed to be true, despite lacking evidence”

Click on the blue heading above to see what we mean by this with the NPDC

A recent media story was full of information that was not true.

Why do the NPDC and some in the media want to give us a bad name ?

Why do they want to influence the general public to not engage with what we have to say ?

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Thanks to everyone who came to the T-Shirt Tuesday meeting on 5th August. We had a really good turnout.

The day wasn’t without some controversy – but the topic was also very important. A speech from the Alliance to the Elected officials about the new Procurement Strategy they were voting on that day.

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We keep talking about debt, which many ratepayers and renters say they are struggling with the effects of that now – in 2025.

One of our team had a look at how that plays out for all of us through the Long Term Plan.

Sadly, the big increases are not scheduled to stop in 2025, they will more than double - unless we vote for people who will change the Long Term Plan.

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People have been very unhappy with the message doing the rounds that a small group of businesses in New Plymouth will be seen to be given an advantage over others. Having a close look at the actual strategy this is only one thing to be concerned about, there is a whole lot more.

There’s an expression isn’t there – go woke go broke ?

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He didn’t give us a lot of notice. His registration had to be lodged by noon on 1st August – he announced his decision not to run with 2 days to spare.

We've put together a few thoughts on the legacy of Mayor Neil Holdom from a Ratepayers and Renters perspective.

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287 people in New Plymouth put in submissions for Local Water Done Well (LWDW). A clear majority of 61% people told the NPDC they wanted to keep an in-house structure to manage Local Water Done Well.

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