Council dumps museum

TAURANGA'S controversial waterfront museum is officially dead in the water after a desperate last-gasp bid by project supporters utterly failed to convince the newly elected city council.
The council voted 8-2 yesterday to stick with the election result in which the unpopularity of the proposed museum-on-a-pier proved pivotal in the overthrow of five councillors.
Only mayor Stuart Crosby and deputy mayor David Stewart backed the museum governing board's call to correct "misinformation" surrounding the project by allowing the site to be put to the test of a resource consent hearing.
The overwhelming vote to cease all spending on the waterfront museum was a bitter pill for many of the 100 people who packed the public gallery to hear museum board chairman Michael Jones deliver an impassioned appeal.
"Why are we so timid and afraid of change?" he asked.
He reviewed the seven years' work which culminated in the former council deciding to press ahead with its preference to build a museum on The Strand waterfront.
Mr Jones said now the election hype was over councillors should approach the project with an open mind and allow the resource consent application to Environment Bay of Plenty to be re-filed. At the very least, it would test the seven years of work.
"Is all this to be put aside by generally uninformed comment?"
He insisted that the waterfront museum was affordable and no other site offered such a unique location. The cost represented less than 1 per cent of the $1.2 billion earmarked to be spent by the council between 2006 and 2016 - less than the margin of error in the 10-year plan, he said.
"How did this become unaffordable ... affordability is not the issue."
Mr Jones highlighted how Rotorua was spending $18 million extending its museum and Waihi was spending $20 million on a discovery centre.
The council needed to lift its vision beyond infrastructure and beaches, he said.
Cr Bill Faulkner responded that the people had spoken.
Eighty per cent of Tauranga property owners did not want to pay, and most did not want it on the waterfront.
Cr Greg Brownless said nobody disputed the worth of a museum - it was the waterfront concept that had not caught on with the public. It was insulting to suggest that Tauranga was not exciting and vibrant because of opposition to the waterfront site, he said.
Crs Faulkner and Brownless, together with Mr Crosby and council chief executive Stephen Town, will liaise with "private interests" to find a way forward for the museum at minimum cost to ratepayers.
Mr Crosby said the waterfront concept had been undermined by people with a different vision of how to tell Tauranga's story. The museum board were never given the opportunity to bring back a comprehensive package to the public.
The key issue was the site, and he feared the council was throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Cr Wayne Moultrie said what was being thrown out with the bathwater was the waterfront concept.
Cr Rick Curach said it was time to take a deep breath and find a way forward that suited the majority of the the community. The only misinformation he could see was from the pro-waterfront side. Supporting the move to cease spending on the waterfront museum were: Crs Mike Baker, Greg Brownless, Rick Curach, Hayden Evans, Bill Faulkner, Bill Grainger, Wayne Moultrie and Catherine Stewart.
Cr Murray Guy was not present at the meeting.