Backers of a plan to close the lower Octagon to traffic during summer weekends were challenged yesterday to come up with a more compelling reason to do so, as the Dunedin City Council voted nine to four against the idea.
The Lower Octagon Forum also lost support for its lack of interest in helping fund the plan, at a council planning and environment committee meeting yesterday.
The first committee meeting of the year debated the matter, and most other matters on the agenda, at some length with election day looming only nine months away.
The forum asked the council to consider closing the lower Octagon to traffic from 6pm on Fridays to 6pm on Sundays during summer, something it hoped would improve the ambience of the area.
But a staff report to the committee noted consultation with businesses in the area showed no clear majority for a trial closure, and that the forum felt the management and cost of the initiative should be the council's responsibility.
Cr John Bezett said the council was "damned if we do, damned if don't" on the issue and, while the recommendation was to turn down the request, it was not about saying "no" to businesses.
Instead, it was up to the group to prove to the council it had support from other businesses in the area.
Cr Bill Acklin supported the plan, as at other times the council had closed roads for events the result had been a success, he said.
There were already plenty of activities in the Octagon, he said.
Cr Dave Cull said the group needed to come up with a better vision of what it wanted for the area.
"At the moment, they haven't done that."
The committee also voted, almost unanimously, to support a staff recommendation to decline a request to introduce a bylaw banning smoking on footpaths around Dunedin Hospital.
The request was made as a way for the Otago District Health Board to stop people smoking outside the hospital's main entrance.
Council environmental health team leader Ros MacGill said in a report enforcing such a bylaw would be difficult, costly, and unlikely to reduce the number of smokers.
Committee chairman Cr Michael Guest said he did not smoke, and did not support smoking, but could not support the plan for a bylaw.
Only Cr Neil Collins voted against the recommendation.
Despite Cr Fliss Butcher's argument the council should not "punish" people by making them pay building consent fees for installing solar hot water systems, a one-year trial of the idea will not be continued.
A report from chief building control officer Neil McLeod said 43 property owners had benefited from the scheme, with a loss of revenue of $25,562, and the result was ratepayers paying for other people's building work.
Cr Butcher said the money was not a loss of revenue, as it was part of work staff were already doing.
She said the council should encourage people to install environmentally friendly fittings, but the committee voted seven to five against continuing the initiative.
