Welcoming Back the Well-Beings

As promised by Hon Nanaia Mahuta at the beginning of her term as Minister for Local Government,  the four well-beings have been restored to the heart of the Local Government Act 2002 (the Act).

The Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Bill has now been passed reinstating the four aspects of community well-being – social, economic, environmental and cultural into the Act.  This short Bill, whilst harking back to the inception of the  Act, should not be interpreted as restoring the governance of local authorities to 2002 terms.  Much has changed in the interim, and the waves of ‘reform’ applied to the Act by successive Ministers have changed the manner of governance imposed in countless ways. 

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Brookfields Congratulates New Award Recipient 2019

At the SOLGM Gala Dinner in May Brookfields had the pleasure of presenting the 2019 Brookfields Emerging Leader of the Year Award to Sandy Lowe, Risk Manager, Tararua District Council. Sandy will travel to the ICMA conference from 20-23 October in Tennessee, USA.

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Court of Appeal Clarifies Requirement to Pay Rates

The long-running rates challenge arising from the Kaipara District Council’s major cost overruns associated with the Mangawhai sewage and wastewater treatment scheme may finally have come to an end bringing welcome clarification of the relevant statutory requirements.  The Court of Appeal, in Rogan v Kaipara DC & Northland RC has ruled that the Appellants were not entitled to withhold payment of rates even if a rates assessment or rates invoice did not contain or accurately record all the specified information.

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Has the Territorial Authority Special Consultation Process Just Become a Whole Lot More Stringent?

In Gwynn v Napier City Council [2018] NZHC 1943 Dobson J held that the Napier City Council (Council) made errors in the statutory consultation process in deciding whether to adopt a local Easter Sunday shop trading policy, despite undertaking a relatively thorough process. The Court held two grounds for judicial review were made out:

• While the minimum statutory requirements for the special consultative process (SCP) were met, the decision did not discharge Council’s other consultation obligations set out in the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA);

• The Council failed to consider a mandatory relevant factor, namely, consideration of the views of parties affected by the decision. 

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Congratulations to Alison Gilbert

Congratulations to Alison Gilbert

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Brookfields Congratulates New Award Recipient

Last week at the SOLGM Gala Dinner we had the pleasure of presenting the 2018 Brookfields Emerging Leader of the Year Award to Matt Keil, Senior Projects Engineer – Water and Waste Services, Southland District Council.

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