Interview with Steve Wilde, Dave Cull, Hilary Calvert and Lee Vandervis
OutSpoken for 15 September 2013 at 5:35pm
Steve Wilde continues his preview of the approaching local body elections with a close-up look at the metropolitan centres. This time it’s Dunedin… the main issues and what the voters are thinking.
Listen to the Integrated Audio [27 minutes] or download as Mp3 or Ogg format.
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Dunedin City Council to bail out the Otago Rugby Union
15 March 2012 • Nine To Noon with Kathryn Ryan (page)
With Lee Vandervis – Dunedin City Councillor opposed to the bail out of Otago Rugby.
Listen to the interview here: Integrated • MP3
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ORFU liquidation
2 March 2012 • The Panel with Islay McLeod and Richard Langston (Part 1)
The ORFU liquidation.
Listen to the interview here: Integrated • MP3
Interview starts at 6 minutes into the audio recording.
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Interview with Jim Mora, Peter Chin and Lee Vandervis
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/20110808
8 August 2011 • Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium
Dunedin ratepayers are facing the prospect of even higher rates to pay for the $200 million stadium. Rates next year could go up by nearly 12 per cent because of a looming budget shortfall. Jim talks to former Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin and project critic Dunedin City Councillor Lee Vandervis.
Listen to the interview here: Integrated • MP3
Information related to interview:
- Council considers extending length of loans (4 Aug 2011) from 20 to 40 years
- DCC seeks savings ideas (8 Aug 2011) in letter from acting chief executive Athol Stephens to staff
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New stadium increasing pressure on ratepayers
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/20110629
29 June 2011 • The Panel with Neil Miller and Rob Salmond (Part 2)
An expensive new stadium is its claimed increasing pressure on Dunedin’s ratepayers as the council struggles to control its mounting debt.
Listen to the interview here: Integrated • MP3
Interview starts at 10 minutes into the audio recording.
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Dunedin City Council approves 7.7% rates increase
Dunedin City Council has approved rates rises of 7.7% despite fears of growing debt.
A council meeting on Monday afternoon approved the increase for the coming year.
Rates in the city have risen by more than 12% in the past two years.
The council says the increases are necessary to fund major upgrades of the Town Hall, main theatre, Otago Settlers Museum and sewage treatment plant and also to pay for a $1 million jump in insurance because of the Canterbury earthquakes.
Dunedin City Council says rates must go up 7.7% to fund major
Only one councillor voted against the rise.
During the debate, Lee Vandervis called the annual plan a sham, and said it had become impossible for the council to balance its books.
The youngest councillor, Jinty McTavish, voted for the rates rise but said she feared the city’s debt burden was being loaded on to the generations of ratepayers to come.
The average city house-owner faces a rise of 6.2% while other groups will pay even more.
Otago Property Investors’ Association president Grant Roydhouse says he accepts the city has taken on a lot of debt but rates rises well above the inflation rate cannot go on for ever.
A former president of the Dunedin Ratepayers and Householders Association, Syd Adie, says he blames the region’s new multipurpose stadium which is costing at least $200 million.
