Category: Planning

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Unitary Plan Coverage Running Hot Again

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Feedback Closed yet the Commentary runs Hot

 

There must be a report due out (which there is) in regards to the Unitary Plan looking at five (now six) different Chrome tabs I have open at the moment in regards to media coverage. The MSM coverage is pretty wide-ranging from support of the UP to some impending changes towards The Clunker as well. Some of the more “interesting” pieces I will look at an individual level later on today and tomorrow.

But first some links into the chatter today around the draft Unitary Plan:

There is also a segment from Morning Report on how kiwi’s might be needing to let go of the 1/4 acre dream as well and be more pragmatic as Auckland grows

Quite the reading for your start of the week…

 

 

Council Submission on the Housing Accord

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What Council thought on the Housing Accord

 

I am no fan of the Much-Ado-About-Nothing (aka the Housing) Accord as it short cuts the Rural Urban Boundary processes we are going through right now, and it also impinges on Council Sovereignty. I have made mention of this last month while the Unitary Plan was open for the first round of discussion.

Auckland Council, some Local Boards and the Independent Maori Statutory Board have written draft submissions on the Accord which is due to go before Select Committee in Wellington.

I am still reading the submission Council has written myself and will comment on it on Monday. In the mean time some light reading for you and if you are inclined leave your thoughts in the comments below.

The Submission (Starting page 7) to the Housing Accord

 

Unitary Plan Update

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Over 20,000 pieces of feedback?

Judging by the Auckland Council‘s release there was 20,200 individual pieces of feedback to the first round of “consultation” for the Unitary Plan.

From Auckland Council

Thanks for your feedback

Published: Tuesday 04 June 2013
Mayor Len Brown with some of the written feedback on the draft Auckland Unitary Plan.
 Mayor Len Brown with some of the written feedback on the draft Auckland Unitary Plan.
(Wonder where my one got put at 104 pages)

More than 20,200 Aucklanders have had their say on the draft Auckland Unitary Plan– the new planning rulebook that will help shape Auckland.

Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse says the level of interest during the 11-week informal public engagement period, which finished on 31 May, was phenomenal.

“Developing a plan that covers all eight previous council areas is a mammoth task and we are taking on board the feedback from our communities to ensure we get the best plan possible,” she says.

“It has been fantastic to see so many Aucklanders taking part in the engagement and sharing their ideas as we plan for the next 30 years of Auckland’s development.”

To ensure communities understand the proposed changes, local boards held around 250 events across the region, including drop-in sessions, meetings in libraries and community centres, and community walks.

  • About 14,000 Aucklanders attended these events.
  • Auckland Council also sought the opinions of Auckland’s young people – via a youth video competition.
    • The competition was won by ‘The Future’, produced by four Orewa College students.
    • View the five finalist videos.

 

Aucklanders involvement

  • 20,200 pieces of individual feedback received
  • 14,000 people attended events
  • More than 88,000 people visited www.shapeauckland.co.nz
  • More than 15,000 people tried the housing simulator.

Next steps

Feedback will be considered in the development of the proposed Auckland Unitary Plan, which is due to be notified later this year.

On notification, the public will have a statutory right to make submissions and be heard by a hearings panel.

More information will be available at www.shapeauckland.co.nz and in future editions of OurAuckland.

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Of note the following developments have either occurred or being heard in the wind somewhere (but something to keep an eye on)

  • An independent review is under way with the recent 11-week feedback process. The review will be presented to the Auckland Plan Committee (“Wart n all”) at its conclusion
  • Caught in the wind that the current stacking of feedback is 60:40 “against” the Unitary Plan. HOWEVER and this is a big point here, the definition of “against” is wide open for interpretation. If I support the basic concepts of the UP but wrote 104 pages on how to clean it up through some large-scale alternatives, does that make me “against” the Unitary Plan. I think the better way in looking at it if the 60:40 point can be substantiated is that 60% are looking for some whole-scale changes to aspects of the UP rather than minor (which is where the 40% would go). In those regards then yes I would fit in there especially with the Special Character Zones and Manukau as the Second CBD of Auckland

 

But, lets wait and see where things go with the UP and the review currently underway

 

Money for a Church but No Money for a Death Trap

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Council’s Funding Priorities Wrong Again

 

I noticed this morning (well actually yesterday) that the Council Strategy and Finance Committee approved on a vote of 10-6 to give $3m of our ratepayer’s money to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell so it can get an “upgrade.”

This is while Auckland Transport struggles to find $27m for a grade separation of the Walters Road rail crossing in Takanini and most likely the same amount for grade separating the Morningside Drive rail crossing that nearly killed a woman in a wheelchair earlier this year.

So would the councillors like to explain their logic in supporting $3m to the second biggest church in NZ (the biggest being the Catholic Church) that is exempt from most of our tax and human rights laws yet not give money to a death trap that nearly killed someone in Morningside where they had a human right for authorities to maintain a public crossing in such a way that the accident should have never happened.

And yes I know the crossing has Kiwi Rail responsibility to it as well but it is a shared responsibility with Auckland Transport thus Auckland Council. After the incident at Morningside, the council should have either stumped up the cash entirely or loaned Kiwi Rail a proportion of the money needed to remove the that death trap through a grade separation. But no it goes through the bureaucracy again and again and again and won’t be done for at least five years.

Yet at a drop of the hat Council approves money for a church (where we are meant to exercise absolute separation from Church and State) on the grounds of community facilities needs. Umm if it is for community facilities how about than dumping the money to Local Boards so they can maintain their own community facilities if the money won’t be going elsewhere.

Shame on the every single councillor who voted in giving money for the church while we have a live death trap still floating around (and a few more entering the category as we move to electrification and more frequent trains).

Shows where some have their priorities that need some readjusting in this upcoming election.

 

Auckland Transport Inducing Fare Evasion

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AT causing induced Fare Evasion on its own accord?

 

We have heard much about Auckland Transport cracking down on Fare Evasion on our rail system, with Veolia Ticket Inspectors hard out on the trail trying to enforce what can be only described as a hopeless situation. Hopeless because in my opinion Auckland Transport is inducing actual Fare Evasion due to it’s beyond lacklustre technical support systems for both AT-HOP and the Rail Ticket Machines.

How?

This example in Papatoetoe today which I hear (the example) is quite common through feedback via Facebook and emails.

I caught the train from Papatoetoe and headed in to Britomart, repeating the exercise for the trip home. I have an AT-HOP card so I tag on and off and will top up either at home or a rail ticket machine if possible.

While waiting for the train at Papatoetoe I noticed people could not use any cash (even correct change) to get a paper ticket to head into town. The machine had no change and the coin slot was jammed meaning unless you had EFTPOS like I did (I topped up on the machine) you were pretty well stuffed in getting a ticket.

If you were getting off at Britomart or Newmarket you could still pay your fare, get off anywhere else and hello no ticket – a freebie for you.

So I sent a tweet to Auckland Transport alerting them to the machine basically down:

@AklTransport Rail ticket machine @ papatoetoe not accepting cash at all even correct change

That was sent about 10:10am today

I get back to Papatoetoe around 3:15pm today and the machine was still with no change and not taking coins. And no reply from AT either…

 

Come on Auckland Transport – where is your support services to keep these machines fully functional so good citizens can get their tickets? FIVE HOURS and no technician when the support for an “urgent” problem such as this is meant to be TWO HOURS in turn around (getting it fixed)!

Knowing my luck and I should go check it tomorrow the machine will still be down at 9:30am tomorrow morning after the morning peak!

So fare evasion? Yep – induced by Auckland Transport rather than the rail patrons themselves due to lack tech support services on the rail ticket machines. 

Do people out there know of any other rail ticket machines constantly down and if so how long before they are back up again.

Leave your comments below (AT do keep an eye on this)…

 

And Orsman got SERVED

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Media3 – The Unitary Plan Debate

And a Nice Mention too

 

Tuesday night I made my up to Mt Eden from Papakura to watch a recording of Russell Brown‘s Media3 program. The show was broadcast last night just after 11pm and can be found either online at TV3 or you can wait for the repeat on Saturday morning.

The main topic I was there for was Russell interviewing three journalists (or an editor in the case with Metro Magazine) over the media’s coverage of the Unitary Plan. The three journalists were:

  • Simon Wilson of Metro Magazine
  • Todd Nial of Radio NZ
  • Bernard Orsman (yes Orsman) from the NZ Herald

The discussion trundled along and was covering the fact that Council did balls up the sales pitch of the Unitary Plan rather badly. I would tend to agree on that regard against the Council with having to run the blog hard in providing information more clearly than Council did or could. But, as Desley Simpson of Orakei Local Board; the Unitary Plan was written by planners for planners and 99% of the city are not planners. Well I am not a planner strictly by University qualification – I am a Geographer and Political “Scientist”. As a Geographer though I still understood the Unitary Plan and what it meant. Although the planning discipline could be argued it was born out of Geography and that Geographers dabble in the planning discipline quite a lot (go Geography as the mother of all sciences and arts with what it encompasses). That understanding would provide assistance to those in Auckland through the first round of Unitary Plan feedback

But I digress

And so Russell facilitated the debate on with the Main Stream Media covering the Unitary Plan and the panel of three journalists continued to make their points until…

Bernard Orsman of the NZ Herald basically having his backside served to him on a silver platter by Simon Wilson. If you have not watched the particular Media3 then I recommend doing so before continuing here.

While I have seen it in the States, having the Main Stream Media serve up one of their own in NZ is something not often seen here. And as I mentioned just earlier Orsman got served – on extremely biased coverage against the Unitary Plan that included blatant misinformation coming from some Right Wing quarters (which got heavily debunked here and in other blogs).

Orsman while looking shell-shocked at being served tried to justify himself through he providing “balanced coverage” and that others are entitled to opinions.

Cue from Russell his mention of myself and Auckland Transport Blog on our extensive, balanced and leading coverage on the Unitary Plan through our blogs. Coverage that would earn the praise of the Deputy Mayor even though some days I was harsh against the Council in some aspects of the UP!

Again Orsman said after the “cue” said “they are entitled to our opinion” after which I think there was silence from him. Soon after the debate session ended.

And so that was the Media3 recording on the Unitary Plan discussion to which it was time to mix and mingle.

I was joined by Ryan and Sudhvir of Generation Zero and were talking to Russell, Simon and Todd on a wide range of issues with the Unitary Plan including angles wanting to be covered but could not due to time limitations.

Orsman I think decided to snob us but not that I am particularly fussed.

Also I was talking to mayoral candidate John Palino who was watching the Media3 recording as well. A good discussion on all things Auckland

At the conclusion of the mix and mingle session  was time to head back home. A good night and a good discussion on the Unitary Plan

Thanks Russell for the mention and I can say Tuesday night was a good night in watching the recording (with its serves) and the mix and mingle afterwards