Renovations for Auckland Local Government Group

Posted on May 31, 2012 by BR:AKL_Admin01

Big changes for Auckland local government stalwart | Scoop News.

Last night the oldest local political group, Citizens and Ratepayers held their AGM. At the end of it, what was C&R became Auckland Communities and Residents.

The press release from Auckland Communities and Residents (ACR) as follows:

Big changes for Auckland local government stalwart

Thursday, 31 May 2012, 10:35 am
Press Release: Auckland Communities and Residents

Media release

Thursday 31 May 2012

Big changes for Auckland local government stalwart

Auckland’s oldest political association is changing its name in a wide-spread organisational change. Citizens & Ratepayers, the largest political group in Auckland local government, has become Auckland Communities and Residents. President Mark Brickell and Leader Chris Fletcher made the announcement following the group’s Annual General Meeting.

Mr Brickell said the organisation had broadened its policy focus, established new branches across the region and was formally adopting a policy of actively working with like-minded interests. “This follows a 12 month review begun shortly after the 2010 local body elections. Despite standing many strong candidates and running a very visible campaign, we did not win as many Governing Body, Local and District Health Board seats as expected.” “These changes will position Communities and Residents as a more effective regional organisation ahead of future elections.”

Communities and Residents Leader Councillor Chris Fletcher said the name change recognises that greater Auckland is made up of many different communities with residents at its heart. “The new organisation stands for strong communities, and will speak up for what is important locally – at times taking on ‘city hall’ to protect this. It will also stand for the interests of residents – those who live and work in Auckland, and expect their local government to be a responsible and prudent governor of the rates they provide.”

Mrs Fletcher said a key policy change has been to endorse a much stronger focus on Auckland’s regions. This includes supporting the Southern Initiative, but opposing the excessive spending on the CBD. It includes supporting land purchases for the City Rail Link, but not approving a construction timetable until full funding is confirmed and wanting greater focus on electrification of rail to Pukekohe

“Communities and Residents will concentrate on affordable policies across Auckland and in limiting rate increases. However new policies will build stronger communities throughout our region and more effectively advance protection of Auckland’s environment, and natural and built heritage.” ”Disappointingly, the just-released Auckland Plan has not been driven by communities and residents. Instead, ‘city hall’ has led a top-down, hand-out approach. As a result our key community voices, the Local Boards, are at risk of being marginalised. A Communities and Residents Governing Body majority would transfer greater funding to Local Board budgets.”

Mr Brickell said a further change was the organisation’s move to formally abandon the “whipping” system, previously used to compel all elected representatives to vote the same way. Mrs Fletcher said Aucklanders have said they don’t want “party machine” politics in local government. This change endorses the approach the elected representatives had been implementing. “This will allow both Communities and Residents and like-minded representatives to work together on issues in common, but to give people the flexibility to take a different view on policies of particular concern to their community and residents.

Mr Brickell said he expected these changes would see the organisation endorsing candidates in some wards, rather than automatically standing against them, although specific decisions had yet to be made. He said. Communities and Residents would start to select and endorse candidates in key locations before the end of the year.

“Communities and Residents is determined to build constructive working relationships with those who share our outlook. We will develop and advance policies that build stronger communities and protect our residents’ interests.

Mrs Fletcher said the organisation is positive about Auckland’s prospects, but believes a key challenge under the recently adopted Long Term Plan budget is to avoid the most livable city becoming most unaffordable.

Ends

It is good to see the oldest political association under go change to reflect the times in Auckland. However I reserve my final judgement on ACR until after the 2013 local elections where Auckland votes in its second Auckland Council (including Mayor (incumbent or not). So ACR (yay another acronym) have from now until technically early 2014 to impress Auckland voters to vote for them.

Will we see whole-scale change with ACR or a case of Leopard changing its spots?

Mind you I think their PR machine might need to hit the floor running as I spotted this parody.

A piece from the Press Release:

“A Communities and Residents Governing Body majority…”

They (Auckland Communities and Residents) refer to themselves as Communities and Residents as short form in texts. Now Auckland Communities and Residents I have given the name ACR – fine with me; but Communities and Residents if I gave that an acronym becomes C&R. Hmm not sure whether that was intended but if the C&R term sticks with the Communities and Residents name rather than ACR which gives a more clean break; “guilty by association” comes automatically to mind. Now if I have drawn a connection there through perception, then it won’t take much for others to do so. Oops?

Never mind the C&R term still applies, just checked their webpage but still…

So I raise an eyebrow and keep and eye on C&R (was hoping to write ACR) through to the elections and just after it.

Your move next C&R?

CRL Program Sparks Debate

Posted on May 31, 2012 by BR:AKL_Admin01

Idea of just one station for tunnels sparks anger – Transport – NZ Herald News.

And

We will not repeat the Harbour Bridge

Part of The City Rail Link Series

Debate on the City Rail Link continues with figures and all sorts coming out from both sides coin.

VOAKL will cut right down the middle and look at commentary cropping up over staging the City Rail Link Development. Should we stage the CRL – poll below

It is time for a discussion and VOAKL will provide one – for everyone with a VIEW

It seems a bitter debate has broken out between Auckland Transport, Councillor Mike Lee and Mayor Len Brown over the City Rail Link.

Today in the NZ Herald (top link) this came about:

Auckland Transport is considering building central city rail tunnels with just one underground station to start with – to the fury of council transport leader Mike Lee.

The Auckland Council transport organisation says a staged approach to developing stations along a 3.5km route for the twin tunnels from Britomart to Mt Eden is among options it is considering for “optimising” project management and finances.

One scenario would be to open the tunnel with just a station near Aotea Square in the first instance, to be followed by others below Pitt St and Symonds St as finances and patronage dictate for a project which threatens to balloon to almost $3 billion.

It is even unclear whether the tunnels would form a true central city loop, as land constraints mean it may initially have only a western connection with the existing network where it will emerge at Mt Eden, rather than an east-facing link as well.

Now to be perfectly honest I can understand Cllr Lee’s fury over this as Auckland has had a history of half-baked transport projects – the most prominent being the Auckland Harbour Bridge (click link for history on the bridge) (click second to top link for Mayor Brown’s reference to the Harbour Bridge). Mayor Len Brown through his press release also stated that:

“I have seen some sound work around the project for traffic and cost efficiency and I fully support that. I have also heard talk of doing one station at a time and I do not believe this is an option.”

However I have raised in the past here at VOAKL of building the City Rail Link Tunnel with Aotea Station first, then the other two stations (over a seven-year time frame) as a way to prevent blowing the out the city finances at the beginning. Now I have seen this as well again from the Mayor:

“Starting now, the project is set to cost $2.86 billion with no impact on rates until after the completion of the project in 2021. Delay it by three years and that cost goes up to $3.2 billion.

A lot of information and misinformation flying about which will only feed into The Rail Fallacy. After commenting on a National Government funding the CRL I called on Auckland Council as it is their move next. That next move would be a new fully independent business and education/information case for the City Rail Link before the first sod is even turned. Lets get this sorted once and for all before we lose the CRL due to poor quality lead up work to turning the first sod. This situation and debate emanating from what has been seen in the two lead links at the top only gives weight to my belief in delaying the CRL out by a few years, so we can get the debate and information campaign back on track. Got to win the people over first and Auckland Council plus Auckland Transport are not doing a very good job at it.

VOAKL will take a look at the merits and demerits on staging the CRL and whether it would best or not to do so (personally I believe in staging the CRL with the tunnel (including East-West Link) with the Aotea Station built first, then the other two stations within seven years of the initial completion of the CRL).

However I did pick up on this point:

It is even unclear whether the tunnels would form a true central city loop, as land constraints mean it may initially have only a western connection with the existing network where it will emerge at Mt Eden, rather than an east-facing link as well.

NO, NO, NO! When the CRL tunnel is built, the east-west link connecting the CRL to the Western Line must be built – no half-arsing with just building a west link. To build just a west link from the Western Line to the CRL line would eliminate all redundancy of the inner circuit rail system (The Inner Circuit being any rail line between Otahuhu and New Lynn (so basically the boundaries of the City Monthly Pass)). You need an East Link from the CRL to the Western Line to allow back up if the Newmarket-Britomart section of track is down (break downs or tunnel collapse/blockage at Parnell or Britomart Tunnel Entrance) and maximum running flexibility of services (such as North Shore to Aotea Station, Grafton via CRL, Newmarket, Onehunga, Airport, Puhinui, Manukau, Botany, to Glen Innes, Britomart and finally back to the North Shore). In short the East Link is just as much-needed as the West Link. Auckland Council and Auckland citizens should make it a bottom line condition with the CRL that the East-West Link IS BUILT – nothing else half-baked! VOAKL treats the East-West Link as bottom line for the CRL – more so that the K-Rd and Newton Stations being built after Aotea Station (and of course the tunnel itself). So in saying that I can understand Mike Lee’s fury there and am fully behind him (now that is rare in itself) in making sure the East-West Link is built at Mt Eden.

So what you think?

Should we stage the CRL – VOAKL would like to hear your views.

I have also added a poll on whether the CRL should be staged or not. I did include an option for those who do not think the CRL should be built at all to capture that view as well.

Auckland Council Has Another Moment

Posted on May 30, 2012 by BR:AKL_Admin01

Someone Can’t Allocate a Budget Properly?

Tonight I am going in and giving a shout out to a person who is in an awkward situation: The Chair of the Manurewa Local Board.

I am publishing his Facebook comment on Auckland Council cocking funding towards Local Boards. A story was even run at Stuff to which the mayor admitted the cock-up in that article. You can read the Stuff article here: Funding `whoopsie’ leaves budget hole

A brief introduction to the article (actually here is the whole article):

Confusion over what millions of ratepayer dollars should pay for has left a gaping hole in one local board’s budget.

Earlier this month the Manurewa Local Board chose not to fund the Auckland Botanic Gardens Festival and Southside Gig, worth $1.7 million over 10 years, because of funding pressures.

But last Wednesday the Auckland Council’s strategy and finance committee voted 12-11 to take $1.7 million out of the board’s budget and fund the two events.

Manukau councillor Alf Filipaina says he was told the money was given to the local board in error so it should be given back to allow both events to go ahead.

“It’s like the Westpac bank giving someone $10 million by mistake.”

But before the vote, council officers told the meeting they had reviewed both events and decided it was up to the local board to fund them rather than the council.

“If the local board decides not to go ahead with it, that’s their decision.”

After the vote, officers informed councillors cuts would have to be made to the Manurewa board’s budget because of the decision.

Manurewa Local Board chairman Daniel Newman says the funding cut is a huge setback.

“The decision means we are now much worse off. It really has ripped the guts out of our 10-year budget.”

The cuts mean funding that pays for Nathan Homestead’s opening hours or the future development of Totara Park could be affected, he says.

The decision was also unpopular with some local board members from other areas, who heckled councillors from the public gallery.

“You’ve stolen money from a local board,” they shouted.

Mayor Len Brown says he hopes those kind of “whoopsies” won’t happen again.

“Both sides were mistaken as to what was intended.”

Mr Brown voted against stripping the local board of the money.

This is what the Chair of that Local Board had to say – complete with comments underneath. [A note with Facebook: VOAKL will publish Facebook remarks that are marked "Public" (indicated by the little globe symbol next to when the post was posted). I will not publish Facebook remarks from "non public" settings unless I have permission from the poster. With a "public" posts I follow the "fair-game" rule, so if you do not want your public comment here in VOAKL, then don't post on a public posting...]

View this document on Scribd

VOAKL supports Newman in his challenge to the Mayor – especially when someone Council acts politically (Alf Filipaina) or just being inept (the Officers?)

Your Move next Len

English: Len Brown – New Zealand politician http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Brown (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Auckland – do we want to become the next Kaipara

Posted on May 30, 2012 by BR:AKL_Admin01

Govt goes to aid of debt-laden Kaipara council | NATIONAL News.

OH MY!

That is my reaction to the shit-of-a-situation that Kiapara has landed itself in with their wastewater plant laying waste to the Kaipara Council’s books.

What happened in Kaipara with Central Government now going to aid them should sound as an ominous warning to Auckland Council.

With Auckland‘s Long Term Plan to be adopted next month by the Governing Body, I hope they are paying constant attention to the books. Otherwise you might just find a Central Government Minder sitting next to the Mayor at Council and Committee meetings. Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?

So just be careful Auckland, we do not want to end up in the same state as our northern neighbours

Auckland Plan Launched and Away

Posted on May 30, 2012 by BR:AKL_Admin01

Auckland Plan is GO – and even has a website (that is readable)

I was meant to report on this yesterday but was dealing with a rather crappy written article from the NZ Herald on the Manukau Station, as well as the National Party and the CRL. Auckland Transport Blog has already reported on this – however I am adding my 2-cents as I did a very extensive submission (and was my first ever) to The Auckland Plan.

So yesterday the Mayor – our resident Prude launched The Auckland Plan after extensive submissions and deliberations on it. VOAKL has already written commentary on The Auckland Plan and how I gave it a “C-” grade (barely passable). But now that the Plan is live it is time to work with what we have from it – or simply burn it and do a full rewrite 2013 after the Local Elections.

Now Auckland Council has done one intelligent thing and created with this website for The Auckland Plan. I have had a cruise through it and am quite impressed actually with this website that gives the digital version of a Plan that is over 200 pages long (think of paper and ink folks printing that out). Each section or chapter of digital version of the Auckland Plan is listed for clicking, reading and even printing – although can not download as a PDF file which I usually do for such things.

So yeah – worth checking out at least.

Below is my original submission to The Auckland Plan, with the main focus on Urban Auckland and Transport (there was some focus on other parts).

VOAKL will maintain commentary on The Auckland Plan, especially as the action plan which “funds” the activities of The Auckland Plan (so the Long Term Plan 2012-2022) is adopted soon by the Governing Body, and The Unitary Plan (basically a Plan on Planning Rules guiding building and development) is drafted, debated and adopted next year. With The Auckland Plan still a “C-” grade document, I will be continuing to seek improvement of The Auckland Plan to get close to as an “A” grade as possible.