Port Part II Study to be Commissioned

After the Mayor gave a monologue and befuddled his way through TV3’s The Nation on Saturday in regards to the Port of Auckland issue (see: THE NATION TWITTER PANEL COVERING PORT OF AUCKLAND UPDATED WITH TRANSCRIPT), the Auckland Development Committee led by Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse tackles the Port issue again.

This is the agenda for the Auckland Development Committee on Wednesday:

Auckland Development Committee 01 April 2015

• 1 Apologies
• 2 Declaration of Interest
• 3 Confirmation of Minutes
• 4 Petitions
• 5 Public Input
• 6 Local Board Input
• 7 Extraordinary Business
• 8 Notices of Motion
• 9 Future of Ports of Auckland Study: This report was not available when the agenda was compiled and will be distributed in an addendum agenda.
• 10 Consideration of Extraordinary Items
• PUBLIC EXCLUDED
  • 11 Procedural Motion to Exclude the Public
  • C1 City Centre Port Precinct – Wharves, Landings and Drydocks

What a cluster-turd that meeting will turn out to be if the Opposition go grandstanding (wasting my time as a ratepayer) partly owed to the Mayor not providing the leadership needed when the issue first came up earlier in the year.

The Future of Ports of Auckland Study Part II was meant to be done in 2013 after the completion of Part 1 and now will be started in haste after the current blow up.

My patience on the Port debate is gone especially towards the Mayor rather than Opposition Leader Councillor Chris Darby. Being lost and perplexed after the Mayor keeps jumping around is also not helping.

To try to salvage the situation the below should really happen:

Right then here is what the Council need to do to avoid this becoming more of an absolute bugger’s muddle than it already is:

1) The Reclamation Rules in the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan have completed mediation and now heading to the Hearings themselves. There is nothing more that can be done here for the moment unless Judge Kirkpatrick seeks a clarification or more evidence in which the Unitary Plan Committee will meet on that. So for the sake of the submitters I would leave the reclamation issue alone for now (see: https://voakl.net/…/28/cameron-brewer-on-port-of-auckland/ )

2) The Bledisole Extensions: Right all of you in the Governing Body and I mean every single one of you have really befuddled this and the Mayor is not helping by flip-flopping like a near dead fish on the wharf.

PROPER PROCEDURE must be followed to get this one nailed properly. So this is what you do. Urban Auckland to hold off court action while
a) The CCO Governance and Monitoring Committee which can (if it tries hard enough) compel Auckland Council Investment Limited that oversees POAL to POAL hold to and await that Part Two Study.
b) That same Committee then reviews and investigates itself around the consent granting procedure, why the Committee was never told, and recommendations to make sure this does not happen again.
c) Make Council’s displeasure known to ACIL that what has happened is unacceptable

Once that Committee has met it can be decided if the Governing Body needs to step in if the previous Committee was jerked around and any tougher compelling against ACIL is needed.

3) Port Study Part II
Lord why do I see this to be an absolute mess when it hits the Auckland Development Committee on Wednesday with grandstanding bound to happen and waste my time as a ratepayer.

It is the Mayor’s mess that has brought is to this point not the Deputy Mayor so Penny should not be the one cleaning it up. Kick that agenda item covering the Part Two Study right to the Governing Body where it belongs with the Mayor in the Chair and taking responsibility for past, present and future actions around the saga.

Kicking it to the Governing Body also means the Council is treating this seriously and not holding Auckland in contempt.

This is no detriment against Hulse but a demonstration that this is the Mayor’s mess and his alone to clean up. So again please kick that agenda item to the Governing Body and out of the Auckland Development Committee.

—ends—-

I still have my interview on the Port of Auckland debate to air however, it maybe already “out of date” depending how much more the situation changes.

All this could have been avoided much earlier on.