Inside City Council A personal view, by Councillor Andrew Hollis

And colour me another week down. This week or so has been filled with a whirlwind of high level seminars all with the view of getting us new councillors up to speed.

I visited Wellington where I supported and accepted an invitation to speak to a group called 50 Shades of Green. The group is protesting against the Government's plans to sell as much as 60 per cent of our pastoral land into carbon credit gathering pine plantations.

I spoke about how farmers get blamed for carbon emissions but are not able to claim carbon credits for fruit trees, native planting or grassland. A ridiculously unfair situation and ultimately farmers are expected to keep paying. It was clear that the rural community is enraged with recent decisions to increase taxes despite them reducing pollution every year for decades.

My week's highlight though was a chat with our deputy mayor who highlighted my pathway out of purgatory is to alter my views on such things as the Waitangi Tribunal and that I was wrong about the mayor having sole choice over chair people. It turns out that I was right, which was a great way to end the weekend.

Finally, we debated the beggar ban. We agreed to send the idea out for consultation. My personal view on this bill is that it is badly written and affects the people who are not intimidating and threatening and likely tramples over people's rights.

Those who are intimidating and threatening need to be dealt with by police. The council just isn't set up to deal with these criminals. Rough sleepers and the truly homeless need our help and should not to be pushed away