28 June 2012
REF: LGOIMA
DM: 839504
Mr Sam Fraser
C/- E-mail: [FYI request #296 email]
Dear Mr Fraser
OFFICIAL INFORMATION REQUEST
The Council refers again to your request made under the Local Government Official Information
and Meetings Act 1987, and received by the Council on 10 May 2012.
We had hoped to be able to post out to you relevant information about the amalgamation matter
approximately one week ago. However, we are still awaiting your advice concerning your postal
address, so that this postal delivery can be arranged.
The documents we are proposing to send to you do not include every document that the Council
holds that concerns possible amalgamation with another council, but are sent to you by way of
summary of the overall position. In particular, in recent years, the Council has considered the
possible amalgamation of Palmerston North City with Manawatu District Council, as mentioned in
the documentation we are proposing to send to you, but after consideration of the options before
them, the Councils jointly decided to proceed with a boundary alteration instead. That boundary
alteration comes into force on 1 July 2012.
The reason why only some of the information requested will be provided is that to provide a copy
of every document concerned would involve a substantial amount of collation and research. See
section 17(f) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, which permits
requests to be refused in these circumstances. In particular, since 2009, the word “amalgamation”
has been mentioned in 11,825 emails held in the Council’s electronic records, and has also been
mentioned in 2,410 documents held in the Council’s electronic document management system. As
you will appreciate, a substantial amount of staff time would be needed to search these documents
for you, and establish whether or not they were relevant to your request. Because information is
not being supplied to you in the manner requested, you therefore have the right to refer the matter
to the Office of the Ombudsmen for investigation and review. Their address is PO Box 10-152,
The Terrace, Wellington 6143.
Meanwhile, when you provide us with your postal address, we will post information to you. Much
of this information also appears on the website for Palmerston North City Council, in agenda and
minutes of the Manawatu District and Palmerston North City Joint Strategic Planning Committee
meetings held in 2010 and 2011, as set out on the next page:
http://www.pncc.govt.nz/yourcouncil/councilactivities/publicdocuments/manawatu-district-and-
palmerston-north-city-joint-strategic-planning-committee/
Yours sincerely
Tracey Nielsen
GOVERNANCE AND SUPPORT TEAM LEADER
