The Marlborough District Council and Education Ministry will step in to dissolve the Renwick Community Hall Committee if it cannot agree on the makeup of the committee, Mayor Alistair Sowman says.
Mr Sowman said the action would be a last resort and was "not where we want to go", but no progress was being made on determining whether the community representatives need to be re-elected.
"We'd like to see them [the committee] resolve it themselves," he said.
"If they can't agree on how the hall committee is to be constituted it leaves us with little option.
"Up to now we've been trying to find a local solution – that's always the best way, but that doesn't appear possible," Mr Sowman said.
The deed for the hall has an option for the ministry and council to disband the committee, he said.
Mr Sowman had not spoken to the ministry yet because he was waiting to hear from the hall committee after council lawyer Peter Radich's memorandum, which says committee community representatives had not been elected properly.
Mr Radich says in the memo that the next steps needed to reform the committee were "quite clear".
The existing committee should stay until it makes arrangements to elect new members.
The ministry and council should consider the future management of the hall and change the criteria for community representatives.
The committee is made up of 12 people – three elected from the community, three from the Renwick Returned Services Association, three from the Renwick School board and three appointed by the council.
According to the deed, community representatives need to be householders, live in the Renwick School district, be elected at a public meeting and not be members on the board, RSA or council, Mr Radich says.
Committee community representative Rata Harper was adamant the hall would not be transferred to the ministry.
She would not consider the ramifications of a transfer of ownership for the community because she believed the transfer would not happen.
The council and ministry had powers to dissolve the committee under the deed, but only if the committee had done something wrong, which it hadn't, Ms Harper said.
"I don't care how long it goes on for. It doesn't worry me. I know it's not going to be sorted overnight."
"We want the hall for [future generations] – a community hall adjacent to the school that the school can enjoy and community can enjoy. Why do we need to change it?"
She and other committee members were still seeking legal advice on the ownership of the hall, she said.
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONG
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