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

Elected members got through the agenda in record time at this week's Strategy and Policy Committee meeting.

As the council term ends, there is a rush to get all the business through before a new council is elected. The rush this time surrounds the hearing of submissions to the new city plan and consequent deliberations by the hearings committee, comprising six councillors. They are sitting most days and other council business also has to carry on, but with all the pressure, members tend to be more focused on the business of the day.

Deposit scheme needed
The Joint Waste Management and Minimisation plan was adopted. This has attracted input from commercial interests during submissions, together with some helpful comments from the community. I believe there will be no significant change with this until central government introduces a deposit scheme on packaging and bottles.
The Independent Hearings Commissioners Policy was amended to reflect amendments to the Resource Management Act. This will allow applicants for resource consents to choose between a hearing by councillors and/or an independent commissioner, provided the applicant pays for the independent commissioner. Elected members thought this unfair, and felt applicants should only pay the difference between the two. The cost of a councillor hearing, for which there is no charge to the applicant, would usually be less.

Revised plan approved
A revised plan to Gordon Spratt Reserve at Papamoa was approved. This reflects changes like the bowling clubroom and feedback from users and neighbours. A strategy for the city's transport activity that aligns The Agency (formerly Transit) and City Services' proposed procurement policy was also approved. All mundane pedestrian stuff to you out there in ratepayer land, but I detail it here to give you an idea of some of the less dramatic business elected members get through, but which has a direct effect on your life. Most times you would only become aware of these matters if they stopped. Some of it is red tape bureaucratic nonsense (I'm not specifically referring to any item here) but those are the rules council works under, in the main imposed by central government through the Local Government Act.

Wastewater fund
At the Wastewater Management Review Committee meeting, elected members considered two applications for funding in a confidential session. A $250,000 fund is collected through wastewater charges. It was imposed as a condition of the resource consent renewal for discharge of wastewater from the Te Maunga wastewater plant by the regional council. Wastewater is processed at the plant and discharged into the wetlands where it gets re-contaminated to a lesser extent by bird and animal life before being discharged about a kilometre out to sea. Long term it is proposed to change the way the wastewater is handled, but in the meantime the waste just keeps on coming. This resource consent, by the way, is for 35 years and costs about $1.5 million. It's another reason why the Southern Pipeline ends up at Te Maunga. It is highly unlikely any other discharge point would get a resource consent.

Pipeline tenders good news
On the subject of the Southern Pipeline, council and ratepayers received some welcome news with the tenders for the Maleme Street to Memorial Park section coming in at just over $13 million. With contingencies, supervision, iwi supervision and management etc, it comes to just under $16 million. Budget estimates were $28 million and the difference reflects the competitive nature of contracting at the moment. It will be interesting to see if prices hold, what with the big workload coming on stream in Christchurch. Now hopefully a little more money might be available to further minimise disruption to adjoining areas. For example Pemberton Park is not needed as a storage facility for the pipes and ways of bypassing Merivale shopping centre are also being investigated.

Go-kart support
The Events Support Sub-Committee considered applications for funding assistance. This is a ratepayer-funded exercise to help organisations with funding for events that bring attractions to our city. The public is excluded from application hearings, but decisions are made public once the applicant has been informed. A guarantee against a loss of $7500 for the go kart street racing even later this year was converted to a grant because of a last minute change in the go-kart club's circumstances.
I'll detail the other outcomes in my next column which will run after the election. This column will be the last for the council term, as voting papers will begin to be sent out this weekend. You have three weeks to return them and official polling day is Saturday, October 9. If I am re-elected this column will continue for the next three years, keeping you up to date with what's really going on down at City Hall, including the bits some people would prefer not be published.

Thanks for all your support, encouragement and your invaluable feedback.