QLDC: Gladding voted off committees - interviews and survey results

Niki Gladding was voted off her council committee roles today in a 7 -2 vote. Esther Whitehead and Quentin Smith voted against the proposal - Lisa Guy was absent. The other councillors and mayor voted in favour of the removal.

The move followed Councillor Gladding's decision to release information about the discharge of partially treated sewage into the Shotover River under emergency powers - information that QLDC wanted kept secret until they were ready to make a public announcement.

Niki Gladding made a statement at the start of today's meeting that she felt due process was not being followed, the meeting should not be taking place and there first needed to be a Code of Conduct investigation to establish whether she had broken council rules. 

The public gallery erupted into applause when Councillor Gladding made this statement.

Crux spoke to both Councillor Gladding and Mayor Lewers after the vote. The full interviews are now on Substack along with full survey comments when Crux asked our readers if they supported or opposed the proposal to remove Niki Gladding from her committee roles.

When the survey closed this afternoon with 842 responses the results were:

Against removal: 791 (94%)

In favour of removal: 51 (6%)