Allan Birchfield. Photo: LDR / Supplied
The censured former chairman of the West Coast Regional Council has been allowed to return to a council committee.
However, Councillor Allan Birchfield's censure for allegedly leaking a legal document remains "unresolved" and he continues to be excluded from other committees.
Birchfield, the longest serving council member and chairman from 2019 until his sacking in March 2023, was reinstated on Monday to the Resource Management Committee (RMC) following a closed door discussion at council's first full meeting of 2024.
Birchfield arrived for the RMC at the start of the day, despite being removed from all council committees after an independent investigation and a code of conduct hearing by his fellow councillors in May 2023. He was found to have breached the council's code of conduct.
At the start of proceedings, council chairman Peter Haddock asked Birchfield "for a word" outside the room, but he declined.
A short while later, Haddock told staff and media to leave while council had an informal discussion. When the RMC got underway, Birchfield remained at the table.
The matter was then revisited at the end of the subsequent formal council meeting, in the public excluded section.
Birchfield left at that stage, telling LDR there had been "an exchange of unpleasantries" early in the day.
The recommendation to reinstate Birchfield to the RMC was proposed by Frank Dooley and seconded by fellow Westport councillor Mark McIntyre, with the vote unanimous.
There was no further comment when the open council meeting resumed.
Birchfield said it was good to be able to return to the Resource Management Committee given he was an elected member representing a constituency.
"We'll see how things go from there," he said.
However, Birchfield said while he did not want "to get in a scrap" and wanted to move forward, he believed he had done nothing wrong in the events leading to his censure.
In May 2023, council's investigator found that "on the balance of probabilities" he had leaked privileged legal information about the employment of former chief executive Heather Mabin.
"I have definitely not apologised… and I don't intend to. If anything, I want an apology from council for what I have put up with," Birchfield said on Tuesday.
"The people elected me, and I'm paid to represent them and they really haven't been getting value for money, in the fact I really haven't been able to do my job.
"I haven't been able to carry out my functions because I haven't had the information."
Haddock said he was pleased to see Birchfield back on the RMC.
Peter Haddock. Photo: LDR / Supplied
"That was a unanimous decision by councillors to alter the terms of the censure to allow Birchfield to the public section of the Resource Management Committee," Haddock said.
"It's good to have him back at the table - it will be good to have his input."
He had attempted to contact Birchfield since the meeting and the decision would be sent formally.
Of the ongoing censure, Haddock said: "We need a resolution."
Birchfield remained excluded from the public-excluded sections of the RMC, the full council, and from the other council committees at this point.
In recent months Birchfield has used the pen to express his concerns in the public forum.
Earlier this month he told LDR that he needed to represent his constituency even if he was to be excluded from much of the council's business.
In particular, he recently penned an opinion piece in the Greymouth Star about what the proposed West Coast combined district plan, the Te Tai o Poutini Plan, poses for land use in the region including the implications of Significant Natural Areas for farming and mining.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
