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  There was indeed a meeting of the Port Consultative Committee yesterday (Thursday) and privatisation was number 5 on the agenda. This is the section of my report to council that deals with it. In case some don't know, BG stands for Bob Goldfield.
  
  
  Privatisation update - BG mentioned that the press and "some" local politicians had been complaining about the delays in a decision in the process and pointed out that the submission had been with the minister for two and a half years. For the first of many times during this presentation BG said that this showed that, "it's not our fault".
  A lot of the delays, BG said, are because of the changes in criteria required. In response DHB have prepared an 'enhanced' submission but were waiting for the result of the section 31 challenge on tariffs, put in by the ferry operators. They had no idea when this would be but estimate that it could possibly in the spring of 2013 (or probably in the autumn of that year).
  When asked who makes the decision on what happens to the port if privatisation is approved (and BG stressed that DHB's was the only submission being considered by the government) BG said that it would be up to DHB. Expanding on this BG said that all applications would be considered as long as they conformed to the agreed criteria decided on by the government. This did not mean that DHB would not consider 'non-conformist' proposals, just that their initial application would need to show adherence to the established criteria.
  In answer to a question from Roger Marples (representing the Royal Yacht Club) BG assured the meeting that there were no plans to outsource the marina.

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