Gambling news from http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz/
The Whangarei District Council wants to change its gambling policy to smooth the way for a new $9million cop shop in the city.
But the move has outraged at least one district councillor and gambling opponents, who say the council is "steamrolling democracy for expedience".
The council has called an extraordinary meeting on July 20 to review its gambling policy - eight months ahead of when a review was due. The move comes after an independent hearings commissioner declined an application by the TAB to have pokie machines in a new site planned at Okara Park.
The New Zealand Racing Board, backed by the Trust Charitable Foundation, which provides gaming machines, has applied to install pokies when it moves its Whangarei TAB from the Settlers Tavern site to Okara Park.
The council bought the tavern site last year, intending to trade it with police for a Vine St site the police had earlier bought from the council for a new police station.
But the council wants police to build the station on the tavern site so the council can have the Vine St site for car parking. The main obstacle to that deal is police requirements to have a "clean" site - without the TAB there. But the TAB is loath to move unless it can get pokie machines at its new site.
Council chief executive Mark Simpson said the commissioner's decision meant the council had to change its gambling policy if it wanted the TAB to have pokie machines at a new site. "The council's preference is to have the police station on the Settlers site and to have parking on the Vine St site," Mr Simpson said. "It's in the public interest that the (TAB) is relocated so a police station can be built there. To do that we propose to amend the gambling policy ... with a public consultation process."
But Whangarei Gambling Action Group spokesman Tim Howard said the council would be carrying out a "Clayton's" consultation as it had already determined what it wanted to happen with the policy. "The council is changing the rules to suit itself. It's shifting the goalposts just two years after a robust public consultation process came up with this gambling policy," Mr Howard said.
"They are trying to steamroll democracy for expedience. They are only doing it to satisfy the TAB's wishes and are ignoring the 75 percent of public submissions (during the gambling policy consultation process) that wanted fewer pokie machines not more. There are no grounds to review the policy yet and no demand from anybody to do so."
Councillor Frank Newman said the review should be seen for what it was: Self-serving. "It has been initiated by the council for the sole benefit of minimising its financial losses on what is yet another messed-up property transaction. It is not the public who are calling for a change to the bylaw. To the contrary, the change is likely to attract opposition," Mr Newman said.
"The TAB will only give up its long-term lease if it can transfer nine gaming machines to a new site. But that is the problem. Council's own bylaws prohibit the transfer of gaming machines from one location to another."
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