Council Comments ’Incredibly Unfair’, Says Historical Society

Friday, 28 June 2024, 9:04 pm
Article: Maia Hart - Local Democracy Reporter

The president of the Marlborough Historical Society says the council attacked its integrity and made unnecessary comments in returning management of the museum to them.

Paul Davidson said they wanted to work in partnership with the council to find a solution for the museum, which had been managed by the council for the past year.

But at annual plan deliberations on Monday, the council agreed to pull its staff out of the museum.

On Tuesday, Davidson said he still had not heard directly from the council and had learnt of the council’s decision through a media statement.

While he welcomed the move, he said he found comments made by the council to be misleading.

Davidson said the mayor’s comments criticising the society were “incredibly unfair”, “disrespectful” and “downright unnecessary”.

In the statement, Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor said the council had tried to negotiate in good faith with the society, but it appeared society representatives had “not really been negotiating in good faith with us”.

“Negotiations have been difficult because each time council has met with the [society’s] representatives, their demands have changed.

“Council has quite simply reached the point where trust has been lost and we can no longer work with the current society representatives.”

The council took over management of the museum last year after a review of the Marlborough Heritage Trust, which had run the museum for close to a decade.

It remained closed for a number of months, before reopening in December with a new manager.

At long-term plan hearings earlier this month, the heritage trust called for the museum to be handed back, and proposed a “reset”.

Part of the proposal was for the council to buy the museum building, owned by the trust for $5 million. The trust would use the interest made off the $5m to invest in heritage in the region.

The historical society owned the building, but the land was owned by the council.

At annual plan deliberations the council decided it would not be buying the building. The trust would however receive a $40,000 operating grant from the council.

Davidson said the trust had now been left with minimal income to operate the museum and had other heritage assets to maintain too, including Cob Cottage and Beavertown at Brayshaw Heritage Park.

“The council have lost sight of the fact that they are supposed to be the community representatives and they have turned this into a fight between the council and a long serving community organisation of volunteers,” he said.

Society treasurer Dale Webb on Wednesday said the $40,000 grant offered by the council was not even half the minimum needed to run the museum.

However, the trust was determined to get the museum open again shortly and make it the “lively community facility it once was”, Webb said.

Davidson wanted to assure the community that the “many treasures” housed at the museum would be kept safe.

“We're not sure what they've been doing to it, and with it, for the last 12 months.

“So there will be quite a lot of auditing, managing and arranging the collection, but the community can be ensured that the collection of donated items which is entrusted to the museum and the historical society is being cared for and is being kept in secure, safe and appropriate conditions.”

The council museum staff would operate under a new Heritage Marlborough brand, and focus on supporting heritage organisations across the region with collection and project management, staff and volunteer resourcing, archive management and promotion, and a large archive digitisation programme.

The museum would close at 3pm on June 27 so current staff could move out of the building, and the reopening of the museum would be up to the historical society.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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