Marlborough deputy mayor takes stand in EcoWorld High Court case

Marlborough’s deputy mayor has denied claims she ever told EcoWorld Aquarium owner John Reuhman that the port would never end its lease.

A High Court hearing on a dispute about the Aquarium’s lease before Justice David Gendall continued this week.

Reuhman claims EcoWorld Aquarium & Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre was promised a renewed lease by its landlord, Port Marlborough. The Port denies this and is seeking immediate possession of the land and building, and costs from EcoWorld for the removal of the animals and fit-out.

Deputy mayor Nadine Taylor gave evidence on Wednesday and said she understood Reuhman had made claims she told him Port Marlborough would never end its lease, because it was a significant tourism asset.

Port Marlborough was directly owned by the Marlborough District Council through its company MDC Holdings. Councillors did not have a say on the day-to-day operations of Port Marlborough.

Taylor said as a councillor of six years she had met with hundreds of different constituents. She had met with Reuhman, and said they often talked about general Picton business.

This included Reuhman’s aspirations to hold a night market beside EcoWorld, his desire for more lighting fixtures on the Picton foreshore and that he wanted CCTV put in around the EcoWorld vicinity.

But she said she did not recall ever making a statement about EcoWorld’s lease, the court heard.

Reuhman’s lawyer Duncan MacKenzie suggested to Taylor that she had always been positive about EcoWorld – and perhaps because she had so many meetings with constituents it may be harder to recall the exact conversation.

“I don't recall the conversation that Mr Reuhman says we had,” Taylor said.

“I'm not going to speculate, I can't recall the conversation. In my role as councillor I am well aware of where my governance role starts and ends, so I would be surprised if I had given that reassurance.”

Asked if she had spoken positively about EcoWorld in the past, Taylor said she was positive about Picton, and all of its tourism assets.

“It’s one of my roles ... to champion. I cannot recall if I have made positive comments about the aquarium or not, but I am positive about Picton’s tourism assets.”

Reuhman has rejected claims he lived on the EcoWorld site.

But on Wednesday Port Marlborough’s lawyer, David Friar produced a copy of Reuhman’s residential address as stated on the New Zealand Companies Register, which had been listed as EcoWorld.

The court heard the port’s lawyers queried Reuhman’s lawyers on the address earlier this year. However, just three days before Reuhman’s lawyers responded to Port Marlborough’s lawyers, the companies register was updated to a Christchurch address, Friar said.

Despite this, Reuhman had stated he only spent a few days each month in Christchurch, the court heard.

Friar also claimed Reuhman made everybody sign a petition regarding the EcoWorld closure before they entered the aquarium.

But Reuhman said this was not the case, instead, he had recently held an aquarium open day, where he charged people $1 to visit, but they did need to sign the petition. Or they could pay the usual entry fee instead.

The petition had gathered around 8000 signatures between its online and physical version, and claimed 117 native animals would need to be slaughtered as a result of the closure.

The court also heard the first email Reuhman sent following being told the lease would end was to the Marlborough District Council, to ensure them he was working on renewing his resource consent.

The case continues in the High Court this week.

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