Messy breakup between Caccia Birch trustees and council stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“The onus of providing the benefits of the change. falls on council. “Given the possibility of a death sentence for the trust, the standard of proof should be beyond a reasonable doubt.” O’Donnell said the council’s claimed benefits were unproven, and at best uncertain. The changes were more likely to be detrimental. One key piece of information supporting the council’s proposal was an estimate it could save up to $24,000 a year, but strategy and policy manager Julie Macdonald said that was only one consideration.
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Revellers enjoying a summer concert on the lawn at Caccia Birch in 2020.
Historic homestead safer in community hands, advocates argue stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Separately, it provides an operating grant of $103,000 to the trust board. With that money and revenue from venue hire, the board employs on-site manager Nicky Birch, maintains the grounds and pays all the bills. O’Donnell said the board did not understand how the council thought it could do better, especially as there had been no discussion between them about its accounts. He did not know what the council thought the trust had done wrong, and why it was being put through a review of how its services should be provided for the second time in two years. The trust board had been challenged by the council to explain how it could contribute more to achieving its “small city-benefits, big-city ambition vision”.