Councillor makes last-ditch attempt to reignite museum debate

Councillor Larry Baldock at the proposed museum site on Cliff Rd. Photo / File

An eleventh-hour attempt to reignite the museum debate will be made in a Tauranga City Council meeting today.

Councillor Larry Baldock has called for a vote on whether to hold a second museum referendum alongside the October election.

The move has one museum supporter concerned and a councillor questioning whether this was Baldock's "swan song".

Baldock sought to ask voters if they would support the council considering putting the museum into the 2021 Long-Term Plan, with ratepayers' contribution limited to 30 per cent of the capital cost, around $20 million.

He commissioned pollster David Farrar to ask 700 Tauranga voters whether they wanted a museum and another referendum on the issue.

The majority - 65 per cent - supported a referendum.

Museum support was 42 per cent, one more than during the last referendum in April last year, after which the council pulled funding for a museum from the 2018 Long-Term Plan.

The poll was private, not council funded, but Baldock would not say who paid.

He said it was prompted by concerns about the "muddled" last referendum and where to take the long-running issue next.

A sketch showing the size and location of a museum on Cliff Rd. File photo

"This is not something that will go away."

The poll gave him the confidence to pick the issue up again, and the referendum result would give the next council confidence on whether to run with it - or not.

Exploring it again soon would ensure money spent on the museum business case - $678,000 since 2015 according to figures presented to the council on Tuesday - would not go to waste.

He was not concerned about the museum becoming a political football in another election.

Peter McKinlay, convenor of museum support group Taonga Tauranga, backed Baldock's intent but was worried about the approach.

The election environment added "too much uncertainty" and opportunity for the debate to again centre on costs, he said.

"I hope he's right, but I worry he's not."

Peter McKinlay, convenor of museum support group Taonga Tauranga. Photo / Supplied

He said the council needed to lead the community in a conversation about why a museum was needed.

There was $70,000 in the draft Annual Plan - to be adopted in tomorrow's meeting - to establish a museum consensus group.

Mayor Greg Brownless said he thought the council had settled the museum issue, and he would need to see hard evidence of community will to support reviving it.

Councillor John Robson said he could not understand Baldock's motivation.

"I really don't know why he is doing it. Is it publicity for his campaign or a final swan song before he goes out in the election?"

New museum poll

If the cost of the ratepayer contribution to a museum was limited to under $20m, would you like council to reconsider this project in the 2021 Long Term Plan?

Yes: 42 per cent
No: 48 per cent
Unsure: 10 per cent.

Would you welcome the opportunity to vote on this in a referendum at this year's council elections in October.

Yes: 65 per cent
No: 29 per cent
Unsure: 6 per cent

Polling dates: June 20 and 23.
Target: 2016 election voters in Tauranga
Sample size: 700
Margin of error: 3.7 per cent

Source: Curia Market Research