Timaru councillors share parting messages at final meeting of triennium

Wednesday, 8 October 2025

Outgoing Timaru District councillors Allan Booth, left, and Sally Parker at the final meeting of the triennium on Tuesday.

Two-term Timaru District councillor Allan Booth was not afraid to say what he really thought, warning that the town’s CBD was at risk of becoming a “ghost town” if a developer’s request was allowed, during his final council meeting on Tuesday.

Booth and three-term councillor Sally Parker, neither of whom is seeking re-election this year, were given the opportunity to address the council at the final meeting of the triennium.

Parker, who also led her last council waiata to get the meeting started, spoke first.

She said each of her three terms, over the past nine years, had been different and she came onto the council “fresh-faced and very keen to help change a few things in our district”.

One of her first attempts was to do with the bylaw regarding dogs at Caroline Bay.

“I pitched that we should change the bylaw to include [they be allowed from] 5am to 9am throughout the year,” she said.

Outgoing Timaru District councillor Sally Parker says she enjoyed working with youth engagement in the earlier days of her first term.

“Boy, oh boy did the community soon tell me that was not going to happen.”

Eventually, the council's environmental services committee voted to maintain the status quo and continue the summertime ban on dogs.

Parker said it had been a good learning curve: “If you don’t ask, you don’t know.”

She had enjoyed working with youth engagement in the earlier days of her first term, as well as sitting on the public transport advisory group.

This included a trip to Newcastle in Australia, where she and others were able to witness how the city’s bus system worked.

Councillor Sally Parker at her first council meeting in 2019.

“If we hadn’t gone there and spoken to the ground floor, the people running the buses, people using the buses, [about] what worked, what didn’t, I don’t believe we would have been able to implement MyWay as successfully as we could for our district here.”

An age-friendly strategy and being chairperson of the infrastructure committee were other highlights and she was proud of the work that had been achieved, she said.

She also enjoyed her time as a Timaru District Holdings Ltd board member.

Parker looked forward to the completion of the Theatre Royal, the heritage facility and Aorangi Stadium, with the three allowing connectivity.

Booth, who served for two terms, thanked those who had supported him, his family, fellow councillors and council staff, describing the latter as the council’s “biggest asset”.

“We cannot forget that.’’

He hoped the recent council restructure, which saw a net loss of 25 full-time-equivalent positions, would be the last for a while.

He said he was passionate about Timaru’s CBD and concerned for its future, saying it was the heart of the town and should be protected.

Allan Booth speaks at a public meeting to address concerns and questions about the proposed retail centre at Showgrounds Hill in 2020.

“I realise that everything evolves and the advent of internet shopping, the courier vans running around dropping off Temu crap to everyone, which does my head in,” Booth said.

“It will evolve, but we need to be cautious about what we allow to happen around the district that’s going to undermine its future.

“We don’t want to have a ghost town in the middle of town.”

He said that had already happened in other districts, and Timaru was one of the last to give in to “the big-box syndrome, such as The Showgrounds”.

He said when he was first elected, the council had allowed the sale of The Showgrounds to proceed “based on the assumption that the holdings company gave us certainty and that the shops couldn’t be under a certain size”.

“But that has since been eroded by various alterations to the consent, which is going to undermine our CBD, if it’s allowed to.”

Outgoing Timaru District councillor Allan Booth told Tuesday’s meeting that council staff were its biggest asset.

He said this would cause a “big problem” for the council in terms of where it should invest.

“So should you build the theatre [Theatre Royal] out at The Showgrounds? Well, have a wee think about it … You don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot.”

Speaking about the council’s $34 million CityTown project that aimed to create a master plan for the long-term development of Timaru’s CBD, Booth said: “We actually had some big ideas and we wasted a whole lot of money on consultants and probably the wrong architects.”

Highlights had included his involvement with Venture Timaru and working with the CBD Group to establish Timaru’s business improvement district, or BID, which would ensure funding for some activities and promotion.

Selecting board directors was also something he was proud of, and a major turning point had been getting “good directors” on the holdings company with experience.

“People who are participating have got current experience and relevant experience.”

He said the importance of that was reflected in the make-up of the prior Alpine Energy board, which had “cost us” a lot of money.

Last year, the community-owned lines company admitted overcharging customers by millions of dollars over nine years.

He encouraged future councillors to have something to offer around the table and to be active, asking questions, and reading agendas.

Mayor Nigel Bowen thanked the pair for their time as councillors, but not before Booth got his final statement in, saying: “Climate change is a load of crap.”