Also on The Nation Twitter Panel today

After the Mayor walked out of a Governing Body meeting on Thursday in regards to the Port of Auckland issue (call it as you will), Orakei Ward Councillor Cameron Brewer had this to say:

Councillors’ call on Mayor to demand the Port takes a cuppa tea

Written Thursday 26 March

Councillors from the left, centre, and right did so well today to calmly and respectfully coach and caution the Mayor. But he’s just not listening…

Following today’s monthly Governing Body meeting it’s clear the majority of Auckland councillors now want Auckland Mayor Len Brown to show some swift leadership on issues around the Ports of Auckland’s plans to extend Bledisloe Wharf as well as addressing the wider rules around future reclamation, says Auckland Councillor for Orakei Cameron Brewer.

“The Mayor thinks spending money on some explanatory PR, establishing some community engagement group, and committing to prioritising a Ports Study report should be enough to appease Aucklanders. But everyone else knows that will only make people angrier.

“Along with others today I encouraged the Mayor to insist the Port takes a cuppa of tea on any imminent construction. Councillors disagreed on how long for, but nonetheless the Port now needs to show some good faith with the public and quickly. As a 100% publicly owned company, they can’t keep soldiering on insisting on building significant wharf extensions and not be prepared to take a deep breath and listen.

“The Port now needs to put up the white flag. The promise of more meetings, more PR, more committees and more reports won’t wash, but alarmingly that is the Mayor’s latest solution.

“I also raised the need for the council to firm up its position in the Unitary Plan process over future planning provisions inside the port zone. The excuse that mediation is supposedly over and we now just have to wait for the Independent Hearings Panel to deliver its recommendations next year is also not good enough. The Port itself has said it is happy to relook at the future reclamation rules, so why wouldn’t we now actively take up that opportunity and not just wait in hope.

“The Mayor needs to call for both parties to re-mediate the long-term planning provisions of the port zone as well as demand a cuppa tea over the imminent Bledisloe Wharf extensions. That was the message the Mayor was given loud and clear today,” says Cameron Brewer.

.—ends—-

The point in bold prompted a question from Brewer to me after we check that mediation on the Port Precinct is complete and the Hearings start in May. The question was (followed by my answer):

• Cameron Brewer Thanks Ben. What’s your view on re-mediation? Could it happen with two willing parties?
• Ben Ross I will answer from a submitter’s point of view as I have submitted not on the port but other aspects of the Unitary Plan:

  I would be reluctant as a submitter if I was just involved in mediation and had come to a suitable agreement or way forward (if there was disagreement) with other parties for mediation to occur a second time owing to Council changing its position.

  This is because the result of the subsequent first mediation will guide how I present any evidence or rebuttal evidence to the main hearings soon after the mediation.

  I fear as a submitter Cameron if you chuck this back into mediation and all parties involved in the original mediation need to go back you are:
  1) Jerking us around dragging us back when we have limited time to prepare for hearings
  2) Using up our limited time for hearings being used instead of mediation
  3) If the mediation position outcome changes entirely the second time round the possibility of new evidence needed for the hearings is there especially if for example I go from agreeing in the original mediation to disagreeing the point in the new mediation.

  So as a submitter you are not mediating between two parties – that being Council and the Port, you are mediating with everyone that submitted on Topic 50 – City Centre – Port Precinct sub topic

—ends—-

So to me as a submitter I would treat this as effective game over with mediation complete and now wait for the Hearings to conclude. It is a pickle the Council put themselves in but their pickle does not include jerking submitters around through sending an issue back to mediation just before the Hearings get under way.

The Council will have to put best foot forward to the Hearings on whatever the outcome was of mediation in sake of the fairness to the submitters. The Panel will determine which way the controls should sit on reclamation because even if Council did go back to Non Complying there was nothing stopping the Panel kicking it back to Discretionary (or vice versa).

The Nation Twitter Panel

Today I will be on The Nation Twitter Panel covering the interview on – you guessed it Port of Auckland. My Twitter handle is: @BenRoss_AKL with the hash tag most likely to be #nationtv3

All my Port commentary current and historic can be found here: https://voakl.net/category/planning/port-of-auckland/