Concern raised over fluoride referendum vote | Northland News | Local News in Northland

A Kaikohe man says a council referendum about fluoridation is undemocratic because it ignores the basic principle of one person, one vote.

But the Far North District Council is defending its decision to allow one vote per property, saying the survey would have thrown up anomalies whichever way it was organised.

Ivan Vujcich, of Williams Ave, received one voting form in his letter box, but both he and his wife Millie wanted to have their say on whether the town's water supply should be fluoridated.

He also wondered about other households in the town, many of which had two adults and two or three grown-up children over 18.

"It gives the two of us, or a whole family, just one vote. That can't be democratic," he said.

Mr Vujcich had also checked at a nearby retirement home with up to 35 residents. None of the residents he spoke to had seen a voting form, so it appeared only one had been delivered for the entire home.

The referendum asks residents in the town water supply areas of Kaikohe and Kaitaia whether they want fluoridation restarted.

The council ran a two-year fluoridation trial ending in March 2009 after the Northland District Health Board raised concerns about the state of Far North children's teeth, which are among the worst in the country.

The trial and equipment were funded by the Ministry of Health on a 10-year contract. The Far North District Council can pull out of fluoridating the towns' water for the next 10 years without paying back the ministry's expenses - but only if it can show that's what the majority of people want.

The form of the referendum was debated at length at the Far North District Council's February meeting.

An initial plan to post the voting form to Kaitaia and Kaikohe ratepayers was rejected, because that would leave people living in rented properties without a say.

There was also much discussion about whether every household should get a vote, or just those in town water supply areas.

Council spokesman Rick McCall said the forms had gone out to those who paid the water bills in Kaikohe and Kaitaia, plus the occupiers of tenanted properties the council had been able to identify.
 

"The survey is based on the principle of one vote per property connected to the council's water supplies in these two areas," Mr McCall said.

"Whatever system had been adopted was going to throw up some anomalies ... The council decided on this particular format as being the least likely to be subject to distortions."

Any households connected to the Kaikohe or Kaitaia town supply systems which have not received a survey form should contact the council  on 0800 920 029. Voting closes on April 30.