Keep Our Assets Welcomes City Council's De-Privatisation Of Mona Vale Homestead

Mona Vale belongs to the people of Christchurch

Keep Our Assets Canterbury (KOA) welcomes Friday's announcement that the Christchurch City Council has forced its lessee, Continental Catering, to reopen the Mona Vale homestead and cafe to the public, having closed both to all but private function guests since October.

This was an effective privatisation of a Christchurch City Council public asset.

KOA is as concerned about our heritage public assets as we are about assets such as Council rental housing, City Care, Enable, Orion, the port and airport companies.

I'm old enough to remember the monumental public fundraising drive half a century ago to buy Mona Vale for the people of Christchurch.

It is a beautiful place that I, along with countless others, have regularly visited and enjoyed in the decades since.

And it was Christchurch ratepayers who paid millions for the post-quakes repair and truly wonderful restoration of the homestead.

That was not done for the exclusive money-making benefit of one private company.

But the reopening comes with restricted hours and access and with a very begrudging attitude from the lessee.

The Council needs to re-tender the lease for Mona Vale and specify that the new lessee is obliged to keep the Homestead open for the public.

After all, it belongs to the people of Christchurch, who have paid for it several times over.

Murray Horton

Convenor

KEEP OUR ASSETS CANTERBURY SAYS:Water too precious an asset to be privatised for the profit of a few

The grabbing and privatising for profit of water is

and has been a problem since before the last National government sacked the elected members of ECan, in 2010, in order to push through the privatisation of water.

Water is the taonga of all Canterbury people. Our rivers and aquifers are threatened first by dirty dairy irrigators and now by foreign water bottlers using plastic bottles

Keep Our Assets Canterbury (KOA) has been supporting the retention of Christchurch people’s assets in the people's ownership for many years now. It was the central issue of our Minto for Mayor campaign at the 2016 local body election.

Water is the asset under threat this local body election year.

Mayor Lianne Dalziel has said, very recently "It (water) may not be owned by anyone, but it belongs to us all".

Councillor Jamie Gough says his Independent Citizens' bloc is in favour of asset sales and wants that to be a major issue in this election campaign.

So in a strange way, by bringing water ownership and control to the fore Jamie Gough has done us all a favour. Water and its use and control is a subject close to the hearts of the people of Christchurch/Otautahi and Canterbury in general.

It’s good to see the People’s Choice group being very clear on where they stand. A clear policy of not privatising water gives the people of Christchurch a strong reason to vote.

KOA says that we need just as clear a statement from candidates for Mayor and the City Council, that water is too precious an asset to be privatised for the profit of a few. It will be a major election issue.

KOA also says a gerrymander in favour of rural irrigators on ECan is not acceptable