Wednesday, Nov 23, 2016
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THE INDEPENDENT VOICE OF MID CANTERBURY
New faces, new lives in ‘Ashvegas’ Mid Canterbury newcomers are to feature on the Ashburton Museum’s portrait wall.
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SPCA future hangs in balance BY SUE NEWMAN
SUE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
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For more than a century the community has helped Ashburton’s SPCA build up assets and has funded its welfare work; with a stroke of a pen those assets could disappear and the face of its welfare work change. A plan to pull every SPCA branch in New Zealand into one organisation is gaining traction and if it comes off, within a year Ashburton would become part of a larger Canterbury organisation, says inspector John Keeley. He’s fought the plan from the begin-
ning, saying there is nothing to gain and everything to lose for small branches that are funded by their community. “People will be less likely to give us money if it’s run out of town and we get some good donations now,” Keeley said. What is proposed is that the SPCA becomes one legal entity. Currently there are 40 branches and seven member societies (of which Ashburton is one). The new organisation would be run by a board and there would be three regions – northern, central and southern, each with three to five areas. Under the plan every SPCA would have
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to transfer all of its assets to the new organisation and it would have to wind up as a legal entity. Keeley says there is nothing in the proposal that will benefit Mid Canterbury. “All I can see is that control of the Mid Canterbury SPCA will be gone and the assets will all be handed over. “If we go with this all of our buildings that were paid for by the community will go.”
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