Warren Cooper: Meeting Mayor Lewers 'a waste of time'

Former Queenstown mayor and cabinet minister Warren Cooper has slammed the performance of the current Queenstown Lakes District Council in an interview with Crux.

Mr Cooper says a meeting between himself and three other former mayors to express their strong objection to Project Manawa - the council's proposed new CBD HQ - to Mayor Glyn Lewers was a waste of time. Mr Cooper says Mayor Lewers simply did not listen.

Adding his frustration at what he sees as multiple failed QLDC projects, Mr Cooper said, "We've got to the stage where assets are being turned into liabilities".

"The council now seems to exist for the staff rather than for the community. They seem to be an instrument by which the council does virtually what it likes. It's out of order.

"I think the money part of the council is not within the grasp of any of the councillors. It's all in the claws of the senior executives and probably just a small coterie of them."

Crux asked Mr Cooper if he thought the next local government election could provide the answer to what he sees as major problems with the QLDC.

"I don't think there's an answer. To mount a case on this particular situation, this secrecy down there (at QLDC) needs to be no longer an instrument. Secrecy is currently being used as an instrument.

"One would assume that there's a certain amount of intimidation going on, that unless you toe the line and do it the way staff want, then you've got no future at the council.

"I would like to see more disclosure of what they were doing. I think that they should open the books without any doubt. What is there that would stop you having a decent balance sheet that's public?"

Crux asked Mr Cooper for his view on the intention of the QLDC to take on a billion dollars of debt by 2030.

"Only if they've got two billion dollars of assets to sell," was Mr Cooper's response.

Crux has approached Mayor Lewers for comment.