More to Ponder Over

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Needing Help?

 

While I have one “Thought” post on ice as I check that it won’t land me in the crap here is something else to think over while on holiday:

From NZ Herald:

Kerre Woodham: Nats run out of petrol

In what should have been a lovely, relaxing wind-down to the year, I found myself getting wound up instead.

Normally, talkback in the week before Christmas is full of callers ringing in with lovely stories of family get-togethers and their own personal Yuletide traditions, and we wish each other well for the holiday season. Nice, warm, fuzzy stuff.

This year, however, the news of a fuel tax hike on the same day the Remuneration Authority announced a pay rise for MPs – backdated to July 1, what’s more – had us incensed.

Bill English said he needed to impose an extra 3c a litre on petrol six months from now because he wanted to meet his target of a surplus by 2015. Growth has slowed right down, mainly because of rising unemployment, hence the tax.

I thought John Key said that by cutting income tax rates we would be able to stimulate the economy. Guess that didn’t work. I thought Key said that he would be able to stem the flow of New Zealanders to Australia by building a competitive economy and offering after-tax earnings on a par with those across the ditch. Well, that hasn’t worked, either.

There are now more people moving to Oz under National than there were under Labour. But instead of ‘fessing up and conceding nothing the Government has come up with has worked, the Prime Minister has produced a classic example of Orwellian double-speak.

Akshally, says Key, moving to Australia is a GOOD thing for New Zealanders to do. They’ll see the world, gain experience – no, just like everything else, Key is comfortable with the numbers of Kiwis farewelling this country.

Well, I’m not. Why can’t he just concede that this politics lark is a darn sight more difficult than he thought it would be? National was voted in because they promised voters they had the answers. They’d be a breath of fresh air. They were business people who knew a thing or two about making money, not academics who’d spent most of their lives in ivory towers.

Well, they may know how to make money for themselves but they don’t seem to have any answers when it comes to making the country richer.

If, after four years of government, the best strategy they can come up with to produce a surplus is to raise the fuel tax, they are devoid of initiative and bereft of imagination.

Prices will rise because of the increased cost of transportation so the fuel tax will affect everyone in this country, not just motorists.

And don’t give me that nonsense about needing the money for roads of national significance – most roads of national significance are tolled. So we already pay a fuel tax. That will be increased. And then we pay a toll. Fabulous.

There are those who say it’s only going to be an extra $3 a week for motorists – not even the price of a cup of decent coffee. That just shows how wide the gap between the haves and the have-nots has become. Many people on low incomes haven’t been inside a snazzy cafe for years.

Why doesn’t the Finance Minister ask his parliamentary driver to use the fuel card to fill up the Beemer and take him for a drive to areas where people are really doing it tough? I’d like to see him tell those people that an extra $156 a year coming out of their pockets is neither here nor there.

I really hope 2013 is the year that National stops blaming the country’s poor performance on the recession and starts coming up with the innovative initiatives they promised us.

 

So some thoughts:

  1. Are we stuck for a lemon for a Government
  2. Is National on Empty and if so how long on empty
  3. Can anything be done by government to move this nation actually forward
  4. Are voters ready to make the hard choices including maybe weaning ourselves on big items like Working for Families?
  5. What are your ideas to move us forward.
  6. Are we ready to maybe swallow that dead rat and do something requiring  some sacrifice short-term for long-term gain – even if it goes against one’s ideology (The City Rail Link being the prime example)

 

I have a few ideas but will go into them sometime in the future. But for starters as I said above: “Are we ready to maybe swallow that dead rat and do something requiring  some sacrifice short-term for long-term gain – even if it goes against one’s ideology (The City Rail Link being the prime example)” – I am ready to commit to that sacrifice and go with moving the CRL forward. Call it the Gibbs gut feeling knowing the CRL is the most logical and pragmatic start in a range of options to be rolled out over the next thirty years to move Power Shift Auckland Forward.

 

But I shall leave you with those thoughts and maybe some ideas to help the government or more to the point getting this nation forward.

 

In the mean time, hopefully the ex-cyclone system otherwise was known as Evan doesn’t drown your Christmas out.

 

Have a Good Christmas Folks

And see you all next year! 😀

 

LGOIMA Request Out – Manukau Car Park

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Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act Request on Manukau Public Car Park is Out

 

 

Recently I had filed a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request to Auckland Council over the business case for the now Auckland Transport owned and operated Manukau City Centre Public Car Parking Building:

Time for a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act Request

 

It is time to file another Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request to the Auckland Council. This time the LGOIMA request will be on the recently opened Auckland Transport public car park building in Manukau which I reported on this morning. The request I will be filing will be for the originalbusiness case presented to the former Manukau City Council (under Mayor Len Brown) on this $14m building before it was carried over as a legacy project by today’s Auckland Council.

I am curious to what the business case was for this parking building in trying to understand why the former Manukau City Council went ahead with this project and possibly why Auckland Council did not stop it.

I’ll be keeping the readers up to date on the request – whether it is accepted or rejected by Council officials.

But in any case it is time to take a peek and what was the methodology behind the construction of this parking building in Manukau City Centre! 

 

And so the information requested has come in today and is posted (as four attachments) below.

 

 

This is the revised version

 

 

 

 

Now I am still reading the documents, but on first glance I think we have just been sold down the road initially with this building if we do not get any more high density development around Manukau soon (the Manukau South Rail Link adds another dynamic to the mix as well).

 

However check this out from AT’s website in the Ronwood Avenue Parking Building:

Ronwood Avenue car park

Last reviewed: 10/12/2012 11:55 a.m.

Car park location: Corner Ronwood and Davies Avenue, Manukau  – entrance from Ronwood Avenue

Parking description:  Multi-storey parking facility with a Vehicle Height Clearance of 2.1m. Eight levels with 676 spaces.

Car park features:

  • System for quick and easy parking (space availability signage by level)
  • Well lit
  • Clean and tidy
  • CCTV cameras that link through to a central control room monitored by security personnel.

 

Contact us about this car parking facility, or if you require immediate assistance in the car park building, press the blue “assistance” button located on the payment machines.

Hours  |   Tariffs  |  Lease Parking  |  Debit Card  |   Parking Vouchers  |   Ways to Pay  |

Normal operating hours 

​Day of the week ​Opens ​Closes
Monday to Friday 6.00am​ ​9.00pm
​Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays ​Closed ​

Note: Customers can park their cars in the building for 24 hours or longer, but can only exit before the last exit or opening times. See Other Parking rates to work out the cost of leaving your car overnight. For example, should you park your car in the building after 5pm on Friday night, and remove it on Monday morning at 6am, you will pay the $5 evening rate for each night it is in the building ($15 in total).

 

Tariffs

The following tariffs are a guideline only and subject to change. Refer to the schedule of fees at the car park entry.

Casual parking (Monday – Friday)

​Casual parking ​ ​ ​
0 – 1 hour​ ​$1 1 – 2 hours $2.00
2 – 3 hours $3.00 3 – 4 hours $4.00
4 – 5 hours $5.00 Max daily rate​ $6.00
* Lost ticket fee​ ​$40.00 ​ ​

* If customer loses their parking ticket, an instant $40.00 fee will be charged to be released from the car park.

 

Other Parking

Other parking​ ​Tariff ​Times & Conditions
Early bird parking​ $4.00​ Weekdays only

Enter and pay before 9.30am

Availability during this time is on a first come basis until full​

Levels 1 and 2 only
Evening rate​ $5.00​ Enter after 5.00pm – valid until 6.00am (following morning)

One entry, one exit

Pay at the machine​
​Lease Parking

Monthly lease deals (incl. GST)

See application forms for lease parking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ​Concession

$150.00

 Level 3

No reserved allocated space -“first come – first served”
Global concession

$360.00​

 ​
Reserved allocated (undercover)

$250.00

 Level G​
Reserved allocated (external)

$160.00

 Level G​
Reserved unallocated

$200.00​

 Level 4
Debit card​ Coded for denominations $20.00 to $200.00.

Rechargeable.​

 Contact us for more information
​Parking vouchers See casual rates above Available in 1,2,3 hour; half or full day periods, parking vouchers are used at the pay machine together with the entry ticket.

Request via fax or contact us ​
​Ways to pay Automatic payment machines can take Visa, Mastercard, Diners card and EFTPOS payments, as well as cash.

Help is only a button push away if required.

 ​

 

* If customer loses their parking ticket, an instant $40.00 fee will be charged to be released from the car park.

 

 

So what methodology was used? Love to seriously know

And I would really love to know how the diminished operating hours and parking tariffs compared to the original and revised Business Case studies are meant to assist in paying off the building as well as building a “sustainable” positive cash flow for Auckland Transport and Auckland Council. Now remember the parking building’s parking tariffs have already been slashed to these current levels to match or even underpin the All Day Park and Display street parking around Manukau. Even then that has not enticed people off the street and into the building (and it wouldn’t for me either).

I also have to ask, it is packed at Westfield Manukau Mall with Christmas shoppers and will be this weekend. Have AT even thought of opening the building this weekend to catch the overflow – you know a win-win for AT and Westfield? Probably not. So while you the shopper go round and around looking for a park, you have a perfectly empty dead parking building just sitting there – NICE ONE AUCKLAND TRANSPORT!

 

Why does Cabbage Boat come to mind here folks.

 

More in this business case later.

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And yes I still my have letter To The National Government too =-)

City Centre Future Access Study

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City Centre Future Access Study – The Reports

 

And so Auckland Council has released the City Centre Future Access Study or CCFAS. Now you can find the files from the Auckland Council website or (and I know one of the files is pretty chunky in size) you can read the embeds below to save on your bandwidth:

 

CCFAS – Graphic Summary

 

CCFAS – Section 1 of 2

 

CCFAS – Section 2 of 2

 

As I said in an earlier post, it shall take some time to go through all this before I run commentary on it.

But for now – happy reading

 

 

 

 

Be Right Back

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Coming Soon

 

Apologies for the lack of posts recently – things have been a bit more flat put than I like at the moment, diverting my attention away from BR:AKL commentary.

 

In saying that, things going on behind the scenes and across Social Media have still being happening with myself engaged in a constructive conversation with Ports of Auckland over the port review and future plans for our port. As of today I am also now reviewing the release of the City Centre Future Access Study which has just been released by Mayor Len Brown, and already spun for their own agendas by Councillor Brewer and the NZ National Party (which is currently in government). While Auckland Council has released the report (the pdf files are at the bottom of the webpage), my initial reaction until I have personally reviewed the files are the following:

Yes I am seeing the spin from all sides on the CRL debate after the CCFAS report was released by the Mayor. Conclusion, time to get someone else to bring the project through on a much better delivery plan that includes timetable and costs...

 

So not to worry folks, as soon as things calm down and normality is restored I shall be back running the commentary again – especially around Port of Auckland and the CCFAS Study.

 

Be seeing you soon – oh and love this hot summer weather here too 😀

 

And the current position I am taking on the CRL can be found currently HERE!