June 18, 2014
Council back to drawing board on Waitara lands
New Plymouth District Council wants to talk more with Te Atiawa before considering future options for its Waitara endowment lands.
Mayor Andrew Judd says it’s a complicated issue, and the council will wait until Te Atiawa’s Deed of Settlement has been ratified before talking with the new iwi governance entity.
Part of the land has been on offer to the crown since 2004 to be used for the settlement, but Te Atiawa negotiators say they don’t want to buy it under that arrangement.
Instead they have included in the deed a provision that if the council sells the endowment land to the iwi, any proceeds will be free of existing statutory trusts and restrictions.
If it sells to anyone else, those restrictions remain.
The land includes part of the block that was the flashpoint for the first Taranaki War in 1860.
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