Cr Bill Faulkner Faulkners Corner www.sunlive.co.nz

Elected members considered some interesting issues at full council last week.

The proposed Waterfront Project Proposal of $20 million has been watered down to a more palatable $625,000.

This will see most of the parking removed from the downtown reclamation in favour of a people friendly environment with a water edge boardwalk.

Council has fiddled with this area for over 20 years and it's never really gelled has it?

It could be that the railway is an unnatural barrier, or perhaps with the prevailing wind, those sou'westers, just make the area too exposed. Or maybe you couldn't see the water for the cars.

Stopping ne'er do wells

After five attempts, council, by majority vote, finally closed the accessway between Sapphire Drive and Harrisfield Drive at Ohauiti.

Originally intended to provide pedestrian access to a planned school that will now not eventuate, this accessway was seen by some residents as a centre point and escape route for local ne'er do wells.

It has been closed for six months as a trial and during that time reported crime has stopped.

Stepping up on the slipway

Another long delayed project, the replacement of the 600 ton slip at Sulphur Point is back on the drawing board with elected members conceding that the sale of some of the Harbour Central waterfront land is necessary to provide capital for a boat haling facility to cater for larger vessels. It won't be 600 tons. The 600 ton slipway was removed to make way for the new harbour bridge and should have been replaced way before this.

Running changes for parks

Sydenham Botanic Park at Brookfield will have another try at a community charitable trust to run it. Council's role in this is to facilitate the project and ratepayers will continue to pay around $20,000 a year to help maintain it.

Pavilion stays

A rundown building at Cliff Road got another stay of execution. It's the old pavilion on the old netball courts and is used by three user groups even though it leaks and is in disrepair. Costs to do a basic upgrade: $20-30,000 and $16,000 to demolish it.

The inevitable was delayed again?

Toilets to be kept clean

Tauranga's public toilet policy was confirmed unaltered. They will be clean and well placed. I asked again for consideration of joint toilet facilities where council/ratepayers shared with the commercial sector; example, the closed toilets in Goddard Centre.

Irresponsible wheeling and dealing

Recriminations are flying thick and fast over a damning Audit NZ report about the Hamilton V8 supercar financial debacle. Michael Redman, former Mayor of Hamilton turned CEO of Hamilton turned Auckland Council economic development chief has fallen on his sword. As the leading initiator of the V8 supercar event his current position is reported as untenable so he went. The event's financial failure should have come as no surprise. Hamilton simply doesn't have the population base to put enough bums on seats to pay for it. In my view putting ratepayers to the level of financial risk that has eventuated without a proper business plan was irresponsible.

Even with a business plan it would be outrageous given the carnivorous appetite for money that motor racing generates.

Tauranga V8s appeared good

When Auckland gave up on its plans to stage the V8s in 2006 Mayor Stuart Crosby and I discussed the possibility of offering Tauranga as a venue. It looked good at first view. Ship pools up at Wharf, V8s unloaded, cars race around Takitimu Drive/Cameron Road/Dive Crescent. Pits on waterfront. Great. So we rang Tony Cochrane in Australia who was running the V8 supercar business. Fine, he was interested and if we would just pop a cheque in the mail for $7 million we could commence business. Yeah right! I thought we were doing the V8s the favour! Subsequently I was surprised when Hamilton went into it and thought I may have missed something. As it turned out all we missed out on is a huge financial debacle that Hamilton ratepayers now have to pay for. Reports of the amount are unclear but seem to be over $37 million. Wow!

The reason I mention this is that it's easy for elected members and staff to get carried away with over enthusiasm on other people's money. The ‘opium' syndrome I call it. There are plenty of examples that have been experienced locally, but not to the extent of this example, at least not for one single event.

Too much meddling

Another travesty of democracy raised its head in Auckland this week. For years now I have railed against aspects of town planning and urban design including the increasingly petty and subjective rules invented by professional planners and endorsed by compliant and agreeable elected members. Urban design has the potential to totally control where you live and how you live. All in your best interests – of course. As if you can't decide for yourself! Fences not allowed in certain situations – for CIPTED reasons (Crime Prevention). Euphemistically I have stated that next they will be prescribing what door knobs you will have.

Well, in Auckland Council they prescribe in the West Coast Area Policy what colour your house will be. Green, black or brown is okay, but not white. Julie Cotton has had an ongoing battle, now resolved, if she repaints her 100 year old white house in cream. The house had been shifted from Epsom where white was okay. The pointy headed bureaucracy got the last laugh though. She has to repaint it within one month. Take warning – Tauranga and Western Bay may not be that far away from this communist state police like activity. In my view this sort of rule is outrageous and evidence of New Zealand descending further into Nanny State. Dumbing down the population and forced compliance of ‘the greater good' nonsense rules belong with Stalin, Hitler and Mao.

This week's mindbender from Steve Jobs, Apple Computer founder on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his persona computer.
'So we went to Atari and said ‘hey we've got this amazing thing, even built with your parts and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary we'll come work for you. And they said No! So we went to Hewlett Packard and they said ‘hey we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'”

From which you could learn you are never beaten until you give up!