17 March 2025
File Ref: OIAPR-1274023063-36416
From: Wellington City (Brooklyn) Rate Payer
By email: [FYI request #30228 email]
Tēnā koe,
Request for information 2025-053
I refer to your request for information dated 26 February 2025, which was received by Greater
Wellington Regional Council (Greater Wellington) on 26 February 2025. You have requested the
following:
“
I am requesting copies of, or a summary of, the conflict of interest statements submitted by
the following employees and contractors of Wellington City Council (WCC) and Greater
Wellington Regional Council (GWRC).
Specifically, I am seeking records for the years they were employed or contracted, where their
conflict of interest statements indicate or do not indicate they are members of the Wellington
Natural Heritage Trust (WNHT) and/or noted any proposed or actual recusals from activities -
especially rural policy advice, design, leading, propagating, or requests lodged for funding of
these and other trusts to which they are trustees/board members.
Please provide this information for as many years as records are available. The individuals of
interest:
Chris Cosslett
Tim Park
Clive Antsey
Chris Horne
Colin Ryder
For expediency's sake, we note that
- LGOIMA permits ask about govt organisations and contractors,
- the trusts the individuals belong to are already published either on professional online
resumes and/or the trusts themselves,
Wellington office
Upper Hutt
Masterton office
0800 496 734
PO Box 11646
PO Box 40847
PO Box 41
www.gw.govt.nz
Manners St, Wel ington
1056 Fergusson Drive
Masterton 5840
[Wellington Regional Council request email]
6142
- the requests for funding for the WHNT from the environmental grant funds, and by whom, are
published on WCC's websites,
- documents containing the names of individuals on the list and their role within the
development of district planning as they were presented to commissioners are also published
by WCC
therefore conclude that the totality of the information requested is already either in the public
domain and not private information or within your remit to make available.”
Greater Wellington’s response follows:
Greater Wellington does not hold records relating to Wellington City Council (WCC) employees
or contractors. For this reason, we would normally have transferred your request on those
matters to WCC under section 12 of the Local Government Official Information Act (LGOIMA).
However, we are aware that you have already made the same request to WCC, so we have not
undertaken that transfer. As a consequence, this response relates only to the information held
by Greater Wellington.
Our search located two contracts relating to Chris Cosslett.
The first contract started on 29 August 2018 for a term of three years and has now expired. This
contract included a Conflict-of-Interest clause detailing the process if a Conflict of Interest
were to arise. No other documents were located relating to this contract with Chris Cosslett.
The second contract started on 15 June 2021 for an initial term of three years with an end date
of 30 June 2024. This contract does have renewal terms available with a final possible extension
to 2028 available. As part of his response to a Request for Application process, a Conflict-of-
Interest Declaration was made. This did not indicate that he is a member of the Wellington
Natural Heritage Trust (WNHT) and did not indicate any proposed or actual recusals from
activities.
There are no records to indicate Tim Park, Clive Antsey, Chris Horne and Colin Ryde
r have ever
been employees or contractors for Greater Wellington. We are refusing this part of your request
under section 17(e) of the Local Government Information and Meetings Act 1987 as the
document alleged to contain the information requested does not exist or, despite reasonable
efforts to locate it, cannot be found
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If you have any concerns with the decision(s) referred to in this letter, you have the right to
request an investigation and review by the Ombudsman under section 27(3) of the Local
Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Julie Knauf
Kaiwhakahaere Matua Ratonga Rangapū| Group Manager, Corporate Services
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