Minto for Mayor

14 July 2016

Media release:

Don’t tie the hands of the incoming council – stop the sale of City Care

Mayoral candidate John Minto is calling on the outgoing Mayor and councillors to halt the process to sell the council’s works company City Care.

“We are now less than three months from the local body election and councils should not be making major decisions which tie the hands of an incoming council.”

This is especially so in Christchurch because neither the Mayor nor any of the seven councillors who voted to sell City Care had an electoral mandate to do so. There was no proposal to sell assets and no public debate at the time of the last election. Instead it was sprung on the city well after votes were cast.

The sale of City Care was to have been completed by the end of June but this deadline passed and a special general meeting of the council to approve a sale late last month was cancelled.

“It’s time for Christchurch voters to have their say.”

“Let’s put democracy ahead of repeating the failures of the 1980s and 90s when our national assets were privatised by successive Labour and National governments.”

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