May St Reserve to stay city-owned | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

The future of a little-known but valuable reserve at Mount Maunganui is safe after a confidential council debate last week lifted the threat that it could be sold.

May St Reserve was one of nine items debated behind closed doors last week, some of which drew criticism from councillor Murray Guy that the council was breaching confidentiality provisions of the Local Government Act.

The secrecy surrounding the reserve was to allow Tauranga City Council to carry out commercial activity without prejudice or disadvantage.

Council deputy chief executive Christine Jones told the Bay of Plenty Times afterwards that the report remained confidential but the decision meant that nothing had changed from the previous resolution of June 2009 to retain the reserve.

The council decided last year to revisit the issue of the 3900sq m reserve. It was looking at three options: to investigate selling the reserve, to include it in the list of potentially saleable properties, or to keep the land.

The council's reason for confidentiality suggested the report contained financial information that would have been useful to developers if a decision had been made to sell.

May St Reserve's future has been in doubt for many years since a previous council proposed to sell the land in order to help pay for the development of the Mount Greens complex in Totara St. The reserve used to be home to the Mount Maunganui and Papamoa Croquet Club before it shifted to the Mount Greens.

Another item taken in confidence was the purchase of the Welcome Bay Baptist Church building on Waitaha Reserve in Welcome Bay. The official reason was to enable the council to carry out negotiations without it being disadvantaged by the information being publicly available.

In September 2011 the council decided to give the Baptists 17 months to reach agreement on a price for the council to purchase the building behind the Welcome Bay Hall. The council wants the church building to become the new home for the Welcome Bay Community Centre.

A joint statement was expected to be released once negotiations were concluded between the council and the church.

Two of the confidential items on the list sparked protests from Mr Guy, including a review of the governance structure of the council-controlled company, Tauranga City Aquatics. He could not see anything that warranted its confidentiality under provisions of the Local Government Act.

He said the report referred to the governance body and did not affect aquatics staff.

Mr Guy also opposed the review of the sale of non-strategic council properties being taken in confidence. Mayor Stuart Crosby argued it was because valuations were attached to each property and it was not in the interests of ratepayers for these values to be disclosed.

Ms Jones said a full list of the properties proposed to be sold would be released in time for the 10-year plan public consultation process.

One of the confidential items included the issue of whether the council will continue to collect development fees for libraries. It was excluded on the grounds that the council wanted to protect its legal position.

Ms Jones said discontinuing collecting development contributions for libraries from July 1 was proposed. The decision would go out for public consultation as part of the council's 2012-22 plan.

The council has dropped plans to build two libraries in the developing southern and western sides of Tauranga and the council needed to show a clear intention to spend the money in order to collect the fees. The expansion of the Greerton Library had never been identified as a cost that could be met from development contributions.

The other major item in discussed in confidence was the transfer of council agreements from the former owner of The Lakes, Grasshopper Farms, to a new owner. Mr Crosby said the way development contributions were handled at The Lakes was separate to the way the council normally managed contributions.