The development at Westgate Metropolitan Centre has really never attracted my support. I can not really support something that continues to draw on the relics of the 1990’s auto centric style planning failures that plague Flat Bush, Botany, and Albany. New Lynn doesn’t get a glowing report from me either with roads still needing diets and a question on whether you really need 21 sets of traffic lights within a Metropolitan Centre……
Yesterday Bernard Orsman ran this piece on the Westgate development
Inquiry into council part in $1b centre
5:00 AM Saturday Jan 31, 2015 Bernard Orsman
Auditor-General Lyn Provost has begun an inquiry into Auckland Council’s involvement in a new town centre at Westgate, which is costing ratepayers about $200 million.
The inquiry follows concerns raised with the Office of the Auditor-General about the way the project was established by the former Waitakere City Council and is being managed.
The Westgate town centre at Massey North is a $1 billion public-private partnership between New Zealand Retail Property Group (NZRPG) and council, first mooted in 2002.
It is said to be New Zealand’s biggest new town centre, equivalent to a new Manukau or Albany, set on a 56ha site at the end of the Northwestern Motorway.
The first stage of Westgate began opening for business at the end of last year when Mitre 10, Palmers Garden Centre and Pak’nSave opened stores.
The council is spending $200 million on roading, parks and community facilities, including a $27 million library and town square.
In a letter to one complainant, Ms Provost said she had received a number of concerns, largely relating to how the line between the public and private benefits of the project have been managed.
“I have decided that it is appropriate to examine and report on these matters, given the public sector’s continuing interest in exploring new ways of working with private sector partners and the novel collaborative arrangements in this project,” she said.
Among the concerns and allegations raised with the Auditor-General are ratepayer cash being used to purchase Westgate Rd through the current Westgate Shopping Centre for about $7 million, the council buying assets to help NZRPG’s financial position to start construction early and NZRPG receiving a council-funded project management fee of 8.5 per cent when the going rate was about 4 per cent.
The Auditor-General has been told the council paid $1000sq m for Westgate Rd that should have been vested free to the council and a “high” price of $630sq m to buy land for the library and town centre.
Council chief executive Stephen Town said draft terms of reference had been received from the Auditor- General and he expected these to be finalised and published next week.
The council would co-operate fully with the inquiry, he said.
The points I have highlighted dark blue is interesting and it will be interesting to see what the Auditor General comes back with in her report. Also $200m on this new Metropolitan Centre seems rather excessive to the point it seems Empire building. I point out that there is very little public transport to connect Westgate with the rest of Auckland. There is no bus way nor even bus lanes yet that would connect Westgate to the rest of West Auckland, the North Shore, and the City Centre. It is also to note that West Auckland has no large employment centres and still wont even when Westgate is complete. This is because the West has no heavy industrial zones nor land unlike the Isthmus and Southern Auckland. There is where the jobs, skills and money is found – in our industrial complexes rather than a Metropolitan Centre filled with retail and cafes. So with all that in mind you can see why Westgate does not get much support from me.
A bit further down in the article caught my attention:
Councillor Chris Fletcher, who has held concerns about the project for several years, said the matter was a bigger scandal than the original Britomart scheme and an inquiry was long overdue.
She raised the issue in 2011, leading to the council obtaining an independent report on the allegations from a senior partner at law firm Meredith Connell, Chris Moore.
The report, completed in April 2012, has not been made public.
…….
So there is a report sitting around that was never made public.
I have filed a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request to see if I can get a copy of the report. You can track the LGOIMA HERE (and yes I know allegation is spelt wrong in the title, bad copy and paste job there).
More on the Westgate situation is bound to come out as the Auditor General completes and releases the report.
Talking Southern Auckland 