‘What value to NZ trip’ - ratepayer

Then Lisburn Mayor, Councillor Margaret Tolerton, fell ill during the trip to the adoptive home of Glenavy native and New Zealand Premier John Ballance, but Lisburn ratepayer Mrs P Bell was surprised to learn, only as a result of her own research, she said, that Mrs Tolerton was accompanied on the trip by the council’s Adrian Donaldson, Councillor Pat Catney and David Twigg of the New Zealand Trust, Ballance House.

Mrs Bell questions the trip’s value to local ratepayers and is unconvinced by what she claims was Mr Donaldson’s justification of the visit in the context of Lisburn City Council’s pride in its links with Wanganui and this year’s 20th anniversary of the Friendship Agreement between the two areas.

The local woman says she has repeatedly asked the council for an outline of how Lisburn area ratepayers stand to benefit from expenditure on the trip, at the same time seeking justification for the number of participants and information on the role played by each.

On the back of a Freedom of Information enquiry, she said, she was furnished with itemised costs and an itinerary for the trip.

“I have repeatedly made my dissatisfaction with responses known and pressed how, in time of financial austerity, when tough economic decisions have to be made, the expenditure requires to be justified, in that it should have benefited Lisburn ratepayers in some way,” she said.

“ . . . A more recent communication involved attachment of a letter in which Lisburn City Council claimed to have provided me with all information deemed appropriate and that there was nothing more that would be communicated to me.

“I was invited to contact Mr Jim Rose, Chief Executive of Lisburn City Council, if I was dissatisfied.”

Mrs Bell said that having contacted Mr Rose and having subsequently submitted a further general enquiry she had yet to receive any response.

“It concerns me,” she said, “that, as a ratepayer in the Lisburn area, I have sought explanation for considerable council expenditure and have, to date, had nothing of substance by way of justifying how the ratepayers of Lisburn stand to benefit from costs incurred by the council trip to Wanganui.”

A spokesperson for Lisburn City Council said: “Lisburn City Council is sorry that Mrs Bell feels that the Council has not adequately responded to her enquiries despite the numerous correspondences which have been sent to her since her original enquiry was received in July.

“All freedom of information (enquiries to Lisburn City Council are responded to with due regard to its FOI responsibilities.

“Given the processes involved the Council is unable to comment further but has communicated directly with Mrs Bell.”