After what I imagine has been a huge day at the council offices the governing body has agreed to the LTP and that includes funding for the CRL. This is great news as we move forward to getting this absolutely crucial project built. Here is what Len had to say tonight:
Today we can celebrate clear and unequivocal steps towards transforming Auckland. After an all-day council meeting thrashing out multiple changes to the draft Long-term Plan (LTP), councillors agreed this evening to adopt my proposals for the 10-year budget. This is a thrilling time to step up and transform this city. The hopes and dreams of our young people depend on it.
And this from Twitter
I will update this if more info comes up but this is a great day for Auckland. Now we just need to convince the government.
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9 hour long meeting apparently. I look forward to seeing the details – but certainly it seems like the CRL money was approved which means the project can advance. What a relief!
Indeed this looks to be a very promising start.
Excellent news – you made the right decision Auckland Council.
Does this also now include electrification to Pukekohe?
great news
Good one Len.
He’ll be remembered as one of Aucklands greatest leaders if he can get it done 🙂
Herald has some more info – but nothing on the Harbour bridge walking and cycling pathway, and a worrying note that there would be no money for urban design (whatever that means).
This is good! Len got the numbers to win this round. Hope he keeps up the numbers to push through whats needed to get that $112 million on the CRL earmarked for 2012 / 2013, spent and spent properly to ensure the land and prep is ready by 2014.
Awesome! The more the council spends on this, the harder it will be for the govt to not eventually contribute something…
Sounds like a marathon meeting!
Everyone on the Blog should be very happy today yes?
Just based on Bernard Orsman’s article-
WINS
Crl
Trams
Less gray paving
LOSSES
Cruise terminal approved
Superyachts approved
Wynyard theatre approved
Movie in parks gone!
Haz-waste gone! (what do we do with our batteries etc now?)
Although the losses outnumber the wins- the wins still win!
Good work Len and Council! I take back about 30% of the nasty things I’ve said 😉
Geoff – don’t be skewed by the Herald’s reporting. What about the hundreds of other items that were in the LTP and are now approved, and the many other items that weren’t? We should not focus just on those that are being highlighted in a news reporter with very limited time to research, and a short article summary to write.
Ingolfson- Skewed how?
Orsman seems like a straight up reporter who is damn thorough at research…
I agree that this is not the full list by any means, but these are the biggies- what should we be focusing on if not the big ones?
How is $10 million for a theatre “a biggie”, when there’s other things not being discussed at all in same Herald article, like some of the massive transport spending on the East Tamaki – Onehunga “motorway that dare not name it’s name”? I’d like to know where that features in the LTP – was it included? Or not? That’s both much more massive and much more important than a small theatre funding item.
Why is the Wynyard Theatre and Cruise Terminal being approved losses?
Hi James- Cruise terminal because they just got an award for being a great terminal already, why mess with a winner?
Wynyard Theatre because- $10M is being spent on subsidising ASB’s build when it could have been used on St James (ATC- Not good enough for us), Mercury (ATC- Not good enough for us), How about the Q theatre? We built it specially for you (ATC- Not good enough for us); all of which are the general “Cultural hub/ theatre district” Council claims to want rather than all the way down at Wynyard.
At a Local Board meeting I attended ATC was asked whether they would give up their (Council sponsored) offices- storage- rehearsal spaces in Mt Eden. ATC- No, we want to keep all that too.
What’s that James Bond flick? The World Is Not Enough?
About the theatre- I agree it is waste of money, if they want a theatre then they can renovate one of the existing one’s that are perfectly good or forget it. Hopefully they won’t be able to find the $13.4 million more that they need.
Cruise ship terminal – not sure about this but I’m inclined to disagree.
” In the case of a super yacht fit out facility at Wynyard Quarter, the council body Waterfront Auckland has been told to put it on a commercial footing and not lumber ratepayers with a $16 million contribution.” Is what is quoted in the article which would suggest that ratepayers won’t have to pay for it. And there should be a boost to the economy, the fees for using these facilities won’t be cheap. So I’ve got no problem with that.
As for Movies in the Park- they could be reinstated with some commercial sponsorship surely?
And as for Chris Fletcher and Cameron Brewer – what hypocrites!
Louis- thanks yes, no problem with super yachts if it doesn’t cost ratepayers.
I would have thought they’d be happy enough to have land and sea reserved for them on Wynyard Wharf, thought it was cheeky when they tried asking for money.
Super-yachts should not need subsidising… I think rich and poor alike can agree on that!
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, Geoff. As was recently clarified after Rudman’s editorial, that award was for the staff performance / operations quality at the cruise terminal. It has pretty little to do with how MANY cruise ships we can handle. Cruise ships don’t queue up like cars at a drive-through – if they don’t get a slot, they go somewhere else in their route planning.
Imagine a restaurant with great staff, but that can feed only a relatively limited number of customers. You are arguing that because the customers that DID get in aren’t complaining, we shouldn’t build a larger (or second) restaurant. A very strange way of boosting the Auckland economy. I think attracting more cruise ships is a massive boost to us.
On the hazmat – one HOPES that this means they won’t COLLECT the stuff, but will still RECEIVE it? Even so, one wonders at it, yes.
They’ve never collected has waste afaik, you have to drop it off certain place on certain day.
Re everything else- I’m sure the line by line budget etc is being prepped for release right now!
Excellent news about the CRL. This is poised to be the next big breakthrough following the battle to get Britomart in place. Big ups to Len.
I am puzzled about discontinuing Haz-waste, I’ve always seen this as a community and environmentally-responsible service.
Yeah the loss of the waste thing also puzzled me. Those things are now more likely to end up in general refuse (regardless of whether or not they should) and will end up making it more expensive to operate landfill sites.
Any links to exactly what was approved etc?
@Geoff agreed. While you & I would probably agree that their money could be spend on much better things that could benefit the community more, at least they are choosing to spend it here rather than at another facility overseas.
As for the transport – great news about the CRL, really fantastic.
Great about the CRL – that was the main thing and it is very, very rare that you get 100% wins. There’s usually a few losses along the way. What was the win for the trams? Did they get more funding to take it through to the ferry building?
Hi Simon, yeah across the bridge as far as Britomart I think. Len was very keen on going up Queen to K rd but I’m not sure if that bit is included.
Will have a dig around and see if they’ve published any details yet..
I was just looking at some of the LTP meeting and I think that had the amendments proposed by C&R and the right had of been broken down then they probably would have cut a few extra things. They ended up putting forward their package in an all or nothing kind of approach and there I think there were to many issues with it from others
Thanks Geoff