Author: Ben Ross - Talking Auckland

Admin and author of Talking Auckland Blog ( http://voakl.net )

Slater Unfairly Maligned

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I have a confession to make. Cameron Slater and Whale Oil is where I drew inspiration back in 2011 to form View of Auckland now Talking Auckland. It was not the attack style he would be known in infamy prior to the election that drew the inspiration to form my own blog, but the content, moderation policy, and simple Blogging 101s to get the thing going and where it is today.

Today the Blog sits in the top 40 and continues to grow at a speed that does not bother me. Over the three years I have tested and trialled different aspects before settling down to the style that the blog is now.
Emails, feedback, and the odd post forming discussion are becoming more regular while the blog is recognised as a credible independent source on that boring Local Government stuff Slater keeps pointing out to me.

I agree with John on several points he has made. Unlike most of the Centre Left blogs you did have pretty much free reign in the comments department providing (through more recent times) they are civil.

Some of the greater (and more intelligent) debates especially around planning and climate change have been over at Whale Oil.

However, if I am being honest with myself now times have changed and circumstances present themselves in all sorts of ways not seen.
True Whale Oil is still number one but his presence and Empire seem to be on the diminishing side just as Judith Collins is.

Who knows what the future holds for Slater but to not acknowledge what he has provided (okay good bad and down right feral) would be me being very dishonest with myself especially if he did provide inspiration for my own blog.

Slater might go through a second period and his Empire another shot at peak power and influence. Or it could diminish itself to history like the great Roman Empire. This we will see in time own Slater’s own terms.

Penny Bright Not Going to Lose Her Home – Yet

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Council Extends Options

 

From Auckland Council

Auckland Council CEO details options to prevent forced house sale

 

Auckland Council CEO Stephen Town has today written to Penny Bright making it clear that the forced sale of her house because of her long-term overdue rates arrears was not the council’s preferred course of action.

Legal proceedings to recover the $33,288.25 of her outstanding arrears would result in the sale of her Kingsland house. Ratings sales are rare as most ratepayers with overdue rates make suitable arrangements with council to pay.

Mr Town says that in her case, as with other outstanding rate arrears cases, the council would prefer to resolve the payment without having to resort to legal action.

In his letter, Mr Town has reminded Ms Bright of the options available to pay her rates which includes a rates postponement.

Council has provisionally assessed her rates arrears situation against the criteria for a postponement of rates and concluded that this option would be available to Ms Bright. This would be on the basis that she applies and is willing to meet and adhere to the requirements of a repayment scheme.

“Ms Bright has today indicated her interest in a rates postponement option. We have provided her with a way forward and the name of a senior council staff member who can assist. The ball is now in her court,” says Mr Town.

“The council has a responsibility to ensure there is a fairness and equity in the payment of rates for all ratepayers and we have tried for over seven years to encourage Ms Bright to pay her rates.”

To date, 20,051 Auckland ratepayers have qualified for a rates rebate and council has agreed to a rates postponement for 337 households.

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And the saga rolls on

 

Have Your Say on Legal Highs

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Council Wants Your Say on Legal Highs

 

From Auckland Council:

Time to have your say on the sale of legal highs

 

Aucklanders are being urged to have their say on where psychoactive substances, commonly known as legal highs, can be sold in the city.

The council’s Local Approved Product Policy consultation, which will decide where the products can be sold, opens on Tuesday 28 October and proposes that:

  1. Licenses to sell legal psychoactive substances in all of Auckland (apart from the city centre) will not be granted in:
  • areas of high deprivation
  • neighbourhood centres
  • within 500m of a school teaching students year seven and above
  • within 200m of a school teaching students between years one and six inclusive
  • within 500m of a mental health or addiction treatment centre
  • within 500m of an existing psychoactive substances retail licence
  • areas identified as restricted areas.

 

  1. Licenses to sell legal psychoactive substances in the city centre will not be granted:
  • in areas of residential deprivation
  • within 100m of an existing psychoactive substances retail licence.

 

Councillor George Wood, chairperson of the Regional Strategy and Policy Committee says the council is working hard to ensure the proper, responsible balance is found.

 

“We have done extensive work on this draft policy, to try and minimise the risks to those most vulnerable in our community,” he says.

 

“Our vision, to become the world’s most liveable city, will be achieved in part through Auckland being a safe and healthy city. These proposed measures will help ensure that is the case.

 

“By setting up our policy on the sale of the products before they are licensed by government, we will be prepared for when they are once again legal to sell.

 

“And while we can’t stop their sale altogether, the council is being as responsible as possible by proposing these restrictions of sale.

 

“So we want as many people as possible to have their say on the policy, as the sale of these products has the potential to affect everyone in Auckland. Making your views heard now on this issue is absolutely vital.”

 

The consultation is open from 28 October-28 November and can be completed via shapeauckland.co.nz.

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Head to Shape Auckland to have your say on where Legal Highs can be sold

 

Time for New Leadership at Vector

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We should not get use to power failures

 

While the investigation goes on into what caused the fire at the Penrose Substation and the resulting three-day blackout on the Eastern Isthmus of Auckland it seems we need a new Chairman, and CEO of Vector – the lines company that delivers the juice to residents and businesses across Auckland.

From the NZ Herald

Get used to power cuts, Vector chairman says

6:20 AM Thursday Oct 23, 2014 – Bernard Orsman
Power cuts are a part of life and Aucklanders should get used to it, says Vector chairman Michael Stiassny.

Vector bosses spent much of yesterday’s annual meeting in Auckland discussing the fire at a substation in Penrose on October 5 that cut power to 85,000 customers.

Mr Stiassny and Vector chief executive Simon McKenzie were unable to say what caused the fire until an investigation was completed, possibly early in the new year.

Only then, Mr McKenzie said, could the company discuss compensation for households and businesses, some of whom were without power for several days.

Compensation could take the form of the “Vector promise” of $50 for households and $200 for businesses. It would be premature to speculate on compensation above that, he said.

Coralie van Camp, a Vector shareholder and longtime critic of the power network company, told the meeting that people could have died due to poor maintenance at the substation.

She criticised Vector for paying out too much in dividends instead of investing in maintenance.

Mr Stiassny called it a serious incident that could have been worse, but said the company and electricity users could not afford a gold-plated network.

It would cost $500-$600 million for Vector to upgrade each of its 14 substations to achieve reliability above 100 per cent. State-owned Transpower, which provides bulk electricity to Auckland, would have to spend more, he said.

The company produced figures showing people in the affected areas had 99.8 per cent reliability of power in the past 15 years.

…..

Source and full article: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11346810

 

$600 million to so-called gold plate the network which actually translates to a power network that rivals the European Union, parts of the USA, and Japan where they don’t get such systemic failures (if they do they are super rare unlike ours which is about every 2-4 years). That is around six years worth of those AECT dividends that you get in your letter box around September each year if we calculate the current dividend out at $335/household.

So the question you need to ask yourself is the following:

  • Still want that dividend and risk the major failures we get every two to four years and throw out what food you had in the freezer?
  • Forsake the dividends for three years to fund 50% (and Vector uses other sources to get the other 50%) and bring the network up to EU standard where such failures would be super rare

 

Getting our network up to the specifications similar to the EU where we have redundancy capacity ample enough is not gold plating, it is good investment and good business. And if the Vector Chairman, CEO, and Government Energy Minister can not see that then they all need to be sacked immediately.

Consider ourselves lucky we do not operate large Nuclear Power Stations which are reliant on an external feed to keep the reactors online. As the USA and Canada found in their last cascading failure when you lose the external feed the reactors need to be shut down for safety reasons making the power situation worse as you take more supply offline….