The $9,000 lectern that's never been stood at

Palmerston North City Council has taken delivery of a $9,000 lectern for a chamber where every meeting is held sitting down.

The lectern is oak. It has a lamp. It arrived on a truck during the student holidays. The town was quiet enough that a ratepayer walking past heard the driver ask where the stage was. There is no stage. Councillors sit at a horseshoe of desks with microphones and always have. Submitters sit. The mayor sits. The only bloke who stands is the one with the water jug.

Lenny Forsyth, who runs a joinery shed off the main road in Awapuni, had a look at the photos. "Nine grand. That's a box with a slope on it. I'd want to know what the steel bit's for. I'd do it in a day. Day and a bit if the oak's a prick to get, which it is. Four hundred bucks. Done Tuesday. Maybe the one after." He said nobody asked him to quote. "Wouldn't have, would they. I haven't got a clipboard."

Donna Shale, 58, has been going to meetings since 2019 over a stormwater matter that is still not sorted. She said the lectern has moved three times because it blocks the side door. "First it was by the window. Then it was in front of the fire exit, which, you'd think. Now it's in the corner with a chair in front so nobody walks into it. It's got wheels. That's the bit. It's got wheels and it still isn't going anywhere." Invoices obtained by The Daily Yarn show another $1,150 for installation and positioning. Shale said that was two blokes and a trolley. "About four minutes. One of them had a pie."

A council spokesperson said the purchase "future-proofs the chamber for a range of formats." The spokesperson also said the lectern was "an asset in its own right, irrespective of use." Asked when a meeting might next be held standing, the spokesperson said there was "no current intention to change the seated format." Asked if that meant nobody would ever stand at it, the spokesperson said that was "a different question."

As of Thursday the lectern is in the corner behind the chair, holding the morning tea tin. The Scotch Fingers are the only thing anyone in that room has stood up for.