Comment permalink

Plans for changes to Dunedin’s main shopping thoroughfare will move ahead, but will now involve more affected groups.

A proposal to ditch the previous George St plans and restart that work was quashed by Dunedin city councillors yesterday in a lively 90-minute discussion during a full council meeting.

After a 13-1 vote, the mayor will now lead the advisory group on George St despite some concerns that he was not neutral on the matter of pedestrianisation.

‘‘It’s fair to say I’m absolutely livid,’’ Cr Carmen Houlahan said early in the discussion.

Carmen Houlahan. Photo: supplied
Carmen Houlahan. Photo: supplied

She argued councillors’ ability to shape the advisory group had been stymied by Mayor Aaron Hawkins’ refusal to hold workshops on the formation of the group, despite a 10-5 vote at the start of June to do so.

 

She initially questioned his neutrality on the issue of removing vehicle traffic from the city centre street when the car-oriented thoroughfare is to be reformed to provide for 75% pedestrians and public space and 25% vehicles.

‘‘It is not democratic,’’ she said. ‘‘You’re not neutral on semi-pedestrianisation.’’

She later said her comments were aimed at taking some of the heat out of a contentious issue.

Cr Houlahan also said she was ‘‘furious’’ Cr Chris Staynes, chairman of the economic development standing committee, had not accepted a role in the group.

Cr Staynes defended his position, saying he believed his role as the economic development chairman, to protect business interests, would be better suited in the newly established ‘‘project delivery control group’’ to be formed before construction begins.

He also argued successfully for the removal of the concept of the advisory group ‘‘co-designing’’ the controversial upgrade from its terms of reference, adopted yesterday.

‘‘Co-design is a process that starts with a clean sheet of paper,’’ he said.

‘‘Co-design is misleading in that it’s saying you could start with a blank piece of paper and do it all again.’’

On June 8, when the council deferred its decision to yesterday, Cr Staynes said he believed the terms of reference for the group as proposed by council staff were only going to produce ‘‘greater anger amongst the retailers’’.

Cr Jim O’Malley yesterday said the scope of the group agreed upon - to provide ‘‘inclusive engagement’’ on the detailed design of the project - would allow a level of input that would bring the community on board in the development of the council’s intergenerational project.

‘‘It will be a yardstick by which we can measure our success in many respects,’’ he said.

Among the groups that would be added to the June 8 proposal - a measure drafted before the meeting by Mr Hawkins - were local emergency services, the Otago University Students’ Association and Otago Polytechnic Students’ Association, the Dunedin Youth Council, and any collective of George St businesses ‘‘upon receipt of their membership list’’.

Cr David Benson-Pope, who first mooted the return of an advisory group to the process, said its return augured well for the public’s understanding of the project after it had been denounced in some quarters.

‘‘We know that there is no intention to drive vehicles or parking out of the city,’’ he said.

But there were people who thought that was the council’s intention whether ‘‘overt or covert’’.

Cr Marie Laufiso said she continued to take issue with the over representation of retailers in the debate as those stung most severely at present by the fallout from Covid-19.

Maori and Pasifika were the most affected by the pandemic, she said, ‘‘and they have been suffering for generations’’.

But she called for unity on the council as they continued to progress plans.

‘‘There’s a whole lot that is missing [in the plans], but that is OK,’’ she said.

‘‘Please don’t undermine it, by going back to your foxholes.’’

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz


 

Comments

View all

Anybody who watched the proceedings live on YouTube would have seen what a big baby Cr Houlahan is. There are ways of getting your point across when debating with your peers (and I use the term loosely) without tossing your toys out of the cot like a one-year-old, which is how she acted. After her childish outburst she sat slumped in her chair, pouting. Very unprofessional.
She was also clearly not up with the play in terms of what was being discussed. I would expect a little better preparation from an elected rep when discussing matters of importance to the city. She likes the sound of her own voice, but has very little of substance to offer.

You can make ad hominem attacks on Cllr. Houlahan if you wish but her point about the mayor's impartiality still stands.

So what you are saying is that she would do an awesome Jacinda-in-parliament impression?

Hawkins is disaster in the making for this city. He is using the tertiary education sector to stack support for his freeloading, hitchhiking, views on transport, just as he did with the elections.
He is NOT FIT FOR OFFICE.
It’s time for the ratepayers of Dunedin to stand up and shut this madness down.
Dunedinites are pragmatic people, not utopian ideologies.

This whole exercise is a sham anyway. A totally biased anti car group setup to provide public input. Except it isn't public, it isn't unbiased and to compound it the group will be led by a guy who doesn't even use his own car, he just "borrows" resourses using other peoples cars.

I just hope that this council haven't driven too many businesses to the wall before they are voted out at the next election. And that the subsequent reconfiguration of George St won't cost ratepayers too much more.

Business needs customers. Customers need easy access to business. The whole Geporge St plan makes the dual needs harder. So people will go to other businesses and eventually the businesses on George St will close or reloacate.

Houlahan is right...I think. I haven't got time to check it out at the moment but I suspect the Motion presented on the Meeting held 1st July was effectively a REVOCATION of the Resolution passed 10 in favour and 5 against at the Council meeting the months before. So it was out of order as there is a special process for revocations. They can't be presented to Council until after a year has elapsed for a start. And there's more than that - longer notice required and more than being seconded. But, if this IS the case ( and, as I said, I don't have time to check - would have to compare the wording of the two) then the way to stop this would be to call a Point of Order. Unfortunately the Mayor would just disallow it and there's no redress from that, A good argument for have an INDEPENDENT CHAIR, like the Speaker in Parliament. With the present local government law, Mayors almost always get what they want. They don't really need much more than a Seconder and they always have that in the Deputy Mayor because they appoint them.

"Cr Marie Laufiso said she continued to take issue with the over representation of retailers in the debate as those stung most severely at present by the fallout from Covid-19."
OK Cr., I'll spell it out. Struggling retailers = Stores close = Retail workers get laid off. That's clearly a bad outcome for said workers, and has nothing to do with ethnicity.

View all

 

Advertisement