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Ashburton
www.guardianONLINE.co.nz
Friday, December 14, 2012
FIRST PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 27, 1879
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Old guard stifles bid for public bridge debate By Sue Newman
Photo Tetsuro Mitomo 131212-TM-173
Four new Ashburton District Councillors were cut down by the old hands yesterday when they tried to have Ashburton’s second river bridge debate held in public. At the start of the council meeting, councillor Stuart Wilson said he wanted to move discussion on the route off the in-committee agenda and into the public arena. “We’ve talked about this incommittee ever since I’ve been on council and we keep putting off the day when the public gets to know what we’re thinking,” he said. “We say we need to talk to all of the property owners, but we’ve done this. It’s time we gave the public a definite answer on where we’re going instead of putting them off.” While the in-committee agenda contained feedback from the latest round of discussions with landowners, Mr Wilson said that because those comments might be personal or sensitive, they did not need to become part of the public debate, but the rest of the debate and the recommended route should. “We’ve all got the background, we’ve read all the background and we know the background. We’ve debated it continuously in committee,” he said. The newest district councillor Ken Cutforth, who won his seat in a by-election earlier this year when councillor Peter Reveley retired, was quick to show his hand in support. But senior councillor John Leadley was not. “I believe it should be debated in-committee at this stage. I don’t think it’s time yet to go public.” Mr Leadley said that while the affected property owners had
Carollers bring Christmas cheer to shoppers Ashburton College students brought Christmas cheer to late afternoon shoppers yesterday when they entertained with a programme of carols in Baring Square. The teenage singers attracted an appreciative audience.
Stuart Wilson - wanted the bridge debate to be open to the public but had his suggestion shot down been talked to one-on-one and while a route had been determined, there were still options within that with differing impacts on individual property owners. “Until the property owners have been notified, we’re not in a position to debate this publicly,” he said. When mayor Angus McKay put the request to move the second bridge discussion into the public arena it was defeated in an almost new councillor versus old division. Supporting public debate were first term councillors Stuart Wilson, Ken Cutforth, Donna Favel and Martin Nordqvist. Opposed were councillors Don McLeod and Alan Totty (also in their first term), Jac Sparks, Darryl Nelson, John Leadley, Robin Kilworth, Neil Brown and Jim Burgess. Mr McKay was also opposed to opening up the bridge debate to the public.
Novopay - ‘it’s like Monty Python does the payroll’ By Myles Hume Some Mid Canterbury school staff were told they would receive as much as $258,000 an hour as part of Novopay’s holiday pay blunders. “Thankfully that didn’t go through, otherwise we would be bankrupt,” Ashburton College principal Grant McMillan said. Extreme over payments and wages sent to the wrong staff have sent tempers soaring again in local schools, as the all-important holiday pay for some support staff went through yesterday. The pay round was delayed by a day for 5000 support staff who had “amendments” made to ensure they were paid correctly – but that did not work. The pay round was critical for non-teaching staff, who were meant to receive a lump sum that would tide them over the Christmas
break while teachers continue on their fortnightly cycle. “How hard is it? All you have to do is pay about 6 and a half per cent of what they earn,” Mr McMillan said. Instead, schools had been issued with lengthy expenditure reports which notify the school with what staff are going to be paid, but what was in their bank accounts yesterday strayed far from the reports. Mr McMillan said it was lucky some reports did not match the pay, some stating his support staff were entitled to hourly rates of $12,000 and $33,000 with one staff member being entitled to $8.4m for the break, equating to $258,000 an hour. Although the staff members did not receive those sums, Mr McMillan said, in reality, the school had 25 payroll errors, some staff over paid and some not paid at all. “This is a disaster on wheels, it’s like Monty Python does the
payroll.” Novopay sent an email to schools saying they “wanted to apologise for the frustration and extra work we caused you this week”, but Mr McMillan said that was all they seemed to be able to do. “No one deserves the fear that they are not going to be paid over the Christmas holiday, some may not be able to make their mortgages or rent,” Mr McMillan said. Hampstead School principal Peter Melrose said it was far worse than he predicted. Three of his staff had their pay delayed so they could be paid correctly, but he soon found that four other school staff members had been over paid in another botch up. “It’s been an absolute nightmare, there have been so many inconsistencies,” Mr Melrose said. Principals are still counting the errors in holiday pay, and will be contacting Novopay staff today.
SHADE SOLUTIONS MADE EASY
A Staff Usage and Expenditure report from Novopay showed an Ashburton College support staff member was entitled to $33,135 an hour.
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