The Porirua Wellington Web Blog - 2004
This blog is about political and community issues in Porirua City and the Wellington Region. It is the view of one person, and you are not hearing the other side! This is the 2004 material. For current material go to The Porirua Wellington Web Blog.
Robert Shaw
BROADBAND IN PORIRUA
As a alert reader of the Porirua News you will have read that Jenny Brash said I had my facts wrong on the broadband issue. The first “fact” that was wrong, she said, was my use of the term “internet company” to describe a “broadband company”. Of course both descriptions are correct and the issue is not one of facts at all.
At the end of her statement Jenny attacked me in a personal way saying that I had ample opportunity to raise the matter months ago. Anyone who wants to inspect the barrage of emails over months will be able to see for themselves that I did indeed raise the issues. It was disappointing to see the personal attack when I was scrupulous not to make the issue personal in any way.
But, I am not telling you this now because I want to set the record straight. What I want you to learn is something quite different. The truth is Jenny did not attack me at all. Nor did Jenny have an opinion on the facts. What happened was that an officer of council wrote what you read in the paper and it went out in Jenny's name. All this happened within about half an hour when the Porirua News sent the Council my remarks to see if they wanted to make a comment.
To you it looks as if Jenny and I are in dispute. But, what actually happened is that council officers fed Jenny a statement which in a rush she agreed to send.
Thus the council officers make the councillors fight. Thus the council officers use their position to advance political views. Under the guise of “defending the council” and “correcting the facts” they wage war. They attack councillors who hold opinions. They claim the opinions are matters of fact. In this way the officers support the mute councillors and make the iconoclast took stupid. They entrench the status quo. They defend their patch with a will. Hence, you should not be surprised when the council is way out of tune with the ratepayers. Or if you find it hard to talk to council, remember that the councillors have the same problem. This is not the way the system is supposed to work. Send your cheers and gripes to robert.shaw@porirua.net
Dear Residents
It has been my privilege to represent you at the Wellington Regional Council and Porirua City Council for twelve years. I have been grateful for the chance to work on your behalf, and thank you for your support.
Together we face major challenges. Council must:
Our councillors, and our city, will respond to proper leadership. We will
have a wonderful future if we can sort out the council and agree on a vision.
(SIGNED)
Robert Shaw
Porirua City Councillor
THE PORIRUA CITY COUNCIL'S CHALLENGES
The residents' association meeting at Paremata last week expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Porirua Council and in response I want to set out what I think should be council priorities. I stress that I am not in any leadership role at the Council and my priorities are not those of the leadership.
Right now there are two real challenges that face the Porirua City Council: cut the rates, and rework the rules of land use. We do not need a grandiose vision or plans to spend more money.
People want council to reduce the tax it imposes – this has been made abundantly clear over a decade. Our rates impede local commercial / industrial development and drive householders away from our City.
The rules of town planning in the District Plan, allow people too much freedom to build structures to the determent of neighbours and the community. We do not adequately protect the environment, nor do we have regard to the overall look of villages or the city as a whole. Our life style, and environment, erodes every day the Council sits on its hands.
Council neglects its core business to spend money on a wide range of peripheral programmes - spend less on overseas trips, handouts, public relations, and subsidising the health, education and social welfare systems. Money for development projects must only be given if there are proper output based and audited contracts in place.
Lesser challenges abound: sort out the roads (a bylaw to restrict trucks?),
fight for the City's interests (look at the hospital debacle), tighten financial
controls, rebuild the bush, generate employment through business growth (the
Kenepuru Drive model worked), establish a direct road to Hutt City to advance
our commercial interests, and rework the concept of our city (we need to celebrate
our low population density, life style opportunities, cultural diversity, coastal
aspect, and history).
Robert Shaw
Porirua City Councillor
AOTEA FOREST
It is sad to see the bland plans emerge for the Aotea Block. Prior to disturbance in the late 19 th Century the dense forest there would have been dominated by emergent rimu and northern rata with the canopy being hinau and kamahi. There would have been scattered emergent trees of miro, rewarewa and Hall's totara. On the colluvial slopes of the steeper valley sides you would have seen rimu, mati, rewarewa, and kahikatea over the top of a canopy of tawa, titoki and mahoe, probably with patches of kamahi and hinau. In the bottom of the valleys you would have seen kahikatea, pukatea, matai, and totara along with the black tree ferns, mahoe and pate. Supplejack and kiekie would have been common.
Logging took the podocarps (rimu, matai, totara and kahikatea); white settlers cleared the land for farms (Elsdon Best wrote about this); and possums took the rest. Now the Porirua City Council turns the place into a housing estate and two suburban shopping centres.
When will we learn that our past is valuable? When will we learn that it is
population density, not the number of people that counts? When will a long-term
strategy for all, prevail over a short-term gain for some?
Robert Shaw
Porirua City Councillor
FEARS KAPITI AND PORIRUA MIGHT LOSE ACUTE ADULT PSYCHIATRIC UNIT
Capital and Coast Health should assure families that the adult psychiatric beds at Kenepuru would not be relocated, said Porirua City Councillor Robert Shaw today.“Families are concerned that building renovations now beginning involve the removal of adult psychiatric beds from the purpose built unit, Te Whare O Rangatuhi” he said.“Of particular concern is that the staff does not seem to be able to provide families with any official definitive statement on the future of the unit when there are strong rumours that the unit will close in May this year”.The unit has since 1993 taken adults from Kapiti, Porirua, Tawa and as far south as Karori and Newlands.“It would be a severe loss to our community if this residential service shifts to Newtown .”“The unit is for seriously disturbed people who need on average about 6 weeks in a special residential facility. In that time, it is very important that they maintain contact with their family and support networks.” “It appears that Capital and Coast Health intends to move these people into a unit located on the Newtown hospital site.”“New patients are being turned away from Kenepuru at the moment, and directed to Newtown ”.“The Newtown site effectively puts the patients beyond the reach of relatives and friends who live in Kapiti and Porirua.” The majority of the patients are Maori and Pacific Island people who do not have ready access to private transport. It is these families that will bear the brunt of any relocation” Cr Shaw added.
NINE DEFECTS IN AOTEA BLOCK PLAN
The Porirua City Council is making a serious mistake with the Aotea block claims a senior Porirua City Councillor.
Councillor Robert Shaw said the council must rethink its approach to the Aotea block “because the concept lacks vision and is not financially viable”.
Councillor Shaw said he is concerned that only 2 weeks has been allowed for public consultation before the major decision is made. “Already council has decided who will hear the resource consent application which will be under our existing liberal District Plan rules. This means the developer will not have to pay anything beyond the normal development levies. The idea that the council will establish a special zone in the District Plan with enlightened rules is dead” he added.
A GOOD DOSE
Peter Glensor talks sense when he advocates for home support workers (DomPost 14 Sept). These skilled and dedicated people help and monitor the elderly in their own homes and even sometimes obviate the need for hospital care. Investing in them is cost effective. Each health board needs to be able to direct its own budget as is best for its community, as Peter says.
The Capital and Coast board needs to make far greater provision for the elderly
in Porirua and Kapiti. Unfortunately, we have a board and layers of management
that adopt a “top down” approach that burdens the professionals and constipates
the system. We are standing for the CCDHB to “dose” them.
Dr Ruth Bradwell
Cr Robert Shaw
Candidates for Capital and Coast Health Board
Shaw replies to Margaret Faulkner, member of the Capital and Coast District Health Board
It is unfortunate that Mrs Faulkner attacks me personally and does not stick to the issues (Letters 11 August 2004). Let me quote for her what the chairperson of her Board said last month about ambulances with crash victims or emergency cases going from Porirua to Newtown : "This has always been the case, and will continue to be the case". The Ministry of Health told me they pay for an average of 17 ambulances a day from our area to Newtown . Mrs Faulkner needs to be clear that this is not acceptable - it is too far to Newtown when time is critical, and our population justifies a full emergency department.
Also, the Board's recent media release confirms what I said: there will be charges at Kenepuru but not at Newtown . Two Board members voted against the Kenepuru service proposal and charges and Mrs Faulkner should have joined them.
I support the Porirua City Council's policy put in place by Mayor Brash -
there ought to be an A&E at Kenepuru! Undoubtedly, there are good things
happening at Kenepuru, but we must not forget the main goal - an A&E that
obviates the need for ambulance trips to Newtown . This is not too much to
ask of a Board that spends $450 million each year. We deserve a proper service
given the taxes we pay.
Robert Shaw
Porirua City Councillor
Labour's bid to control both the Council and the health board is dramatic. They will stand a full ticket. The Porirua Labour Party has always dominated our Council and the Licensing Trust - now they also want the health board.
We have a Labour Minister of Health who appoints 5 board members. Now we have a Labour ticket to elect 7 members including two Porirua people.
John Burke led the last Labour controlled council in New Zealand . When he was defeated we all thought it was the end of an era. Fifty years ago political parties were common in local government. But it was realised that we should strive to have everyone involved in local decisions and the ideology of parties destroys all sense of community.
Labour councillors meet before meetings and decide how they will vote. Then they turn up and there is a pseudo-debate. The outcome is known from the start. I still have photocopies where John Burke wrote out by hand how his councillors should vote. I enjoyed the items against which he wrote “own decision”. Meaning Labour did not care how the vote went and there could be a genuine debate. Perhaps a museum would like my photocopies.
You pay about $2,000 per position to be on Labour's ticket. That money goes into their fighting fund. Hence, they are all bound together from the start. This approach will work well with the new STV voting system and tribalism will assert itself.
Their practice requires that Labour excludes competent people because they have to give jobs to the faithful. Frustrations build, Council becomes a battleground, and everyone seems to hate everyone else. “Friendships” are alliances and they are short lived.
Party discipline is strong in Porirua. Strong personalities demand it. The 2001 Who's Who says Ken Douglas is the chairperson of the Socialist Unity Party. Today he and Kevin Watson dominate Porirua Labour. They are uncompromising hard-men of the old school. I admire their ability although I do not agree with what they do.
Labour dumped Bud Lavery because they did not trust him. Jasmine Underhill then fled within a week of being selected as their candidate. Labour for the first time ever will stand candidates in the Northern Ward and a full ticket in Titahi Bay .
PRE-ELECTION POLITICS HEATS UP
“If the majority of councillors want to advance the arts centre and the recreation centre, they need to establish a feasibility study which would cost about $300,000” said Councillor Robert Shaw .
He was commenting on Thursdays Special Council Meeting that promises to be a raucous free-for-all more inspired by the forthcoming council elections than the needs of the City.
Councillor Shaw said tensions are high after the Mayor used the absence of 2 councillors to overturn decisions made the previous day during the budget debate.
The Thursday meeting has been forced on Mayor Brash by Councillors Palmer, Green, Watson , Gillon, Douglas , Dow , and Leggett.
The councillors have demanded their meeting at 4.30 pm on Thursday 29 July which is not the usual council meeting time, but it is a time when they can all attend.
“Mayor's normally represent the earlier decisions taken by fair vote – representing council decisions is the role of the mayor. The councillors are upset because this did not happen in this case. The mayor felt the pressure of the community and undercut the council's decision and thus lowed rates for the election year”.
Councillor Shaw is critical of the provision in the Annual Plan to spend $166,000 to consult the public on two projects.
He said “a consultation should cost not more than $20,000, and Council needs a clear proposal before it consults”.
“Officers have indicated that a feasibility study for the two projects would cost about $300,000 and this is the sum of money that should be in the budget if the projects are to be advanced together.”
“Any consultation about substantial projects should be undertaken as a part of the Annual Plan consultation so that the public can consider alternatives in a fair way.”
“If the majority of councillors want to advance the arts centre and the recreation centre, they need to establish a feasibility study which would cost about $300,000.”
A feasibility study would provide a practical plan, with the sites specified, and with known costs. In the meantime, the roof of the recreation centre continues to leak badly as deferred maintenance remains outstanding, and the officers of council wait for clear instructions from the councillors.
THE DOUGLAS MOTION TO SPEND $25 MILLION ON THINGS UNCLEAR
There were 5 reasons why I voted against the $25 million proposal.
1) The two projects did not appear in the draft budget put out for public consultation.
Had $25 million been in the budget, ratepayers would have responded. The projects
were not in the budget because the preparatory work had not been done, and
the councillors had decided it was not sensible to consult at this stage.
2) The correct way to proceed if you want these projects is to produce a feasibility
study which would cost about $300,000 and then consult the public. I may have
supported a feasibility study.
3) The proposals discussed were to further develop the town centre - which
is already congested. We need proposals for the suburbs that will produce a
more balanced approach towards the development of the City.
4) Porirua's excessive rates hold back our development. My motion to consult
the public on the level of rates was rejected by the councillors and hence
there is no data. However, I believe council must reduce its spending, focus
on providing value for money, and then look at expansion. The facilities being
discussed have the potential to add to the ongoing rates burden, as happened
dramatically with the Aquatic Centre.
5) The inclusion of the $25 million hit meant many worthwhile supported things
had to be ditched.
Finally, although I had to support the mayor's move to kill a rates rise,
I do not believe that taking advantage of absences is honourable.
Robert Shaw
Porirua City Councillor
KENEPURU A &M AFTER-HOURS FEES FOR PATIENTS NEEDING GP-LEVEL SERVICES WILL BE LOWER THAN CURRENT AFTER-HOURS FEES
The Health Board is the victim of its own foolish decisions. They are forced to impose fees because Kenepuru is no longer a hospital but is a primary care facility. The Board must charge for GP services otherwise they will be swamped with people who want to avoid their normal doctor's fees. The Board must prepare itself to provide a hospital at Kenepuru. Their first responsibility is to provide hospital services equitably. The move to make Kenepuru a GP level service just continues the disaster of the last 20 years. The hub and spoke model the Board adopted has Newtown as the hub and the spokes are primary services such as GPs. The Board should not be a provider of GP services although it could be a vehicle to subsidise such services. The Board must provide hospital services that are accessible. This means that they should be working out how to establish a Level 1 intensive care unit at Kenepuru.
Porirua people demand an equitable level of resource, and that means equitable access to hospital services. In the recent mayoral campaign in Porirua City the community showed a strong determination to gain a proper hospital facility at Kenepuru – something on par with the Hutt Hospital . Bob Henare made it clear in the earlier media release that anyone seriously ill or injured should go directly to Newtown . You should not waste vital time taking people to Kenepuru because they will just have to shunt them onto Newtown . More>
For further information Councillor Robert Shaw
PORIURA CITY'S DISTRICT PLAN
The day you buy your first house is the day you become involved with the District Plan. The Plan sets out the rules for you and your neighbours. It is a book 2 inches thick and over a decade old.
People say the Resource Management Act is a dog. But, usually it is the District Plan that has upset them. The Act is pretty neutral – it says the councils must write Plans and it says how decisions are to be made once the Plans are written.
As a councillor I sometimes sit down with unhappy – occasionally shocked - property owners and try to help them with District Plan issues.
For years I have wanted to change the District Plan. It is a simple exercise because the law sets out the steps. At the moment the developers of the Aotea Block are changing the District Plan for their own convenience.
Council officers have a list of minor changes they want us to consider: hide power lines, control hazards, protect heritage sties, clarify rules, fix contaminated sites, establish the rights of neighbours, adjust water levies, protect trees, and better manage signs.
But the plan to make small changes year-after-year is not acceptable. It misses the point – the whole philosophy of the Plan is wrong. We need a new approach, not simply to address an ever growing list of small amendments.
The big hill top subdivisions can be done without regard to the rest of us, because the Plan allows them. We do not protect landscape.
To rewrite the Plan we need $300,000 in the budget for the next two years – it is urgent and vital if we are to protect our quality of life and add value to properties!
Council should stop wasting money on plans that are for “guidance” and change the rules that bind. The village strategy work, like the rural review, has become an industry – we plan to do plans to have plans: the Long-term Plan says we are going to spend money on village plans and these will decide if we will change the District Plan.
MY VISION FOR PORIRUA CITY
My vision for Porirua City is a uniformly good quality of life for our people and pre-eminence in everything we do.
Our foundation should be our families, and families thrive in communities. Our goal should be to ensure people feel they belong here to know they have a place and that others care about them.
Your council's job is to build communities in suburbs (which provide 78% of the money). Fortunately, we do not need central edifices we use the Michael Fowler Centre and the stadium.
Communities need hubs - sports clubs, churches, marae, hobby/cultural/artistic groups, and residents associations.
The financial power of the many helps the few, and each group takes its turn. Council should not fund individuals (this includes councillors' international holidays).
Much depends on what you see as Porirua's assets – for me space, openness, bush, harbours and landscape count. We should extend our linkages to the sea and green areas. (The Aotea block works against this principle - “pack them in” is a bad prescription).
So how should your council spend your money? Council must do the things that others cannot – advocacy and funding. Priorities are roads (direct link to the Hutt, highways), trains/buses, suburban facilities, building back the green/wet environments, and underground services/utilities.
The business community is important and council should work through Business Porirua. We must generate wealth - become an exporter and make money flow towards us. Council must reduce the cost of doing business and not subsidise overseas owners.
Mine is not the vision of growth - growth is bankrupt idea that profits only a few people. We should seek to make a better life for existing people.
Our constipated Council can do nothing significant. Council must cut staff, cut grants, cut waste, restructure, and gain focus. In the planning process councillors looked at only a fraction of the $40 million spent each year (the misnamed “basics” were off-limits). Council must slash rates to help ratepayers, to free Council's budget for fresh priorities, and to establish our financial credibility. We must start again with new ideas.
Kenepuru will not have an Accident and Emergency service soon. Few people understand this. Most think that because builders hammer we get an upgrade.
On an average day, 17 ambulances, 2 “free” taxis, a shuttle bus, and over 100 private cars, head for Newtown from Porirua. The cost in both money and time is unacceptable. Many people are untreated because of travel.
The Accident and Emergency service we have at the moment is a Level 2 Service. That is a level of service designed for rural places in Australia . Doctors must be available within 10 minutes. It is open for 8 hours on weekdays.
When the Health Board says the place will be open 24/7 they mean the light will be on. They do not mean there will be a doctor on the site.
What is being done at Kenepuru is pretty much a duplication of the Porirua after-hours service, without the doctors.
Our new facility would in the UK be called a Receiving Room. This describes its function. It receives patients and decides where they should be sent.
If it is serious - head for Newtown . You could waste precious time at Kenepuru.
The new Kenepuru facility (which they call Accident & Medical ) is modeled on the Wairau Hospital at Blenheim – so the Board says. Actually, Blenheim has 4 wards and a strong, private general practice after-hours service. The population of Blenheim is about 22,000 people. Kenepuru serves over 100,000.
The Kenepuru land was purchased by Coast Health before the amalgamation with Capital Health. We were proud of that campus – designed for the future. It will be sold to pay for Newtown . Today we betray all those people had the Kenepuru vision, foresight and energy.
Your health board representatives said the $5 million budget blowout (in two months) will not impact on Kenepuru.
I urge them to get involved with the review of nursing positions, the “length of stay” review, and the clamp down on the replacement of staff – all of which hit Kenepuru. We deserve better treatment.
SISTER CITY TRAVEL
Your correspondent (Letters 18.11.03), whom I will not name, is correct when
he says there is money to be made out of sister city links. He receives $130
for each brief meeting he attends at the Council about sister cities. He is
a member of the International Committee. Recently, a meeting of that committee
had only one decision to make, and it was to consider your correspondent's
application for $1,500 to holiday in Australia . The cost of the meeting was
far greater than the amount requested. There is a serious point in this: the
council lacks financial prudence and responsibility. Small sums of money are
being splashed all over the city and the real work of council suffers neglect.
Robert Shaw
Porirua City Councillor
THE AOTEA GRIDLOCK
If the Aotea development is a success there will be a traffic jam at the intersection of Whitford Brown and SH1. This will lock in Whitby, Papakowhai, Aotea, and Waitangirua. The long delays will appear in both the mornings and the afternoons.
Even if the Aotea development is not a success, we still face a jump in vehicle numbers on SH1 from 37,000 to 45, 000 per day over the next 10 years.
The answer is to rebuild the bridge that used to link the Cannons Creek side of the motorway to the city centre. This bridge was pulled down when the current ramp bridge was constructed. The cost of a new flyover and a better connection to SH1 is $12 million.
A road between Aotea and the city centre was always a part of the Aotea plan. One of the reasons the council bought the land was to make this connection and thus facilitate commercial development being integrated with the rest of the city.
The boring and expensive (from the ratepayers point-of-view) housing estate option might be said to lessen the need for a connection to the city centre because the goal is not commercial advancement, and because traffic problems emerge after the developer has made his money.
However, the traffic problems will soon appear as Council problems and Council
will be forced to solve them. This expenditure must be included in the 10-year
plan Council is now writing.
Robert Shaw
P orirua City Councillor
COUNCILS' MUST PLAN
By law our Council must have certain planning documents. It has been our tradition to establish those documents and then to invent other plans to address issues that arise. We are doing it again. This time we are establishing a Long Term Council Community Plan, and say we will do the village strategies later. The usual excuses are used - there is not time, the legislation is not helpful, the consultation would be difficult, some parts of the city are not ready, and so on.
If we did not waste time and money on peripherals we would have plenty of
money and energy to do the things we are supposed to do. Last week $35,000
of the ratepayers' money was spent to help the business and the education sectors
get closer together. I guess the ratepayers are happy to subsidise education
and business. Presumably all the businesses in the city have profited equally.
And the officers enjoy that sort of work. Pity we cannot do the things we need
to do.
Robert Shaw
Porirua City Councillor
ODDS AND SODS
Twice in about as many months the Ombudsman has forced chief executive Blakeley to hand over papers. This time the request was for his recent correspondence with controversial Councillor Litea Ah Hoy.
The chief argued that the request from a newspaper was not specific enough, and as it related to the Aotea Block , the information could encourage dissatisfied people to mount a legal challenge against the Councils' decisions. The Ombudsman found that there was some substance in the second concern, which of course raises the very issues the chief wanted to bury.
The quarter-inch high heap of papers released was a mixed bag. There were emails and letters about the Aotea Block (with a few tantalising deletions), exchanges on allegations that councillors drank 60 bottles of wine, some discussion of the encroachments at Golden Gate , and officers' attempts to charge Cr Ah Hoy for information. I drew the conclusion that Cr Ah Hoy writes quite well. Had she been one of my business management students she might have obtained 7/10.
Inevitably, when officers try to withhold public information things turn out badly. This particular battle took 8 months. It cost ratepayers money, created ill feeling in the Council, and took attention away from important decisions. On a brighter note: Aotea College forecasts a modest profit. Well done Julia Davidson and Brian Chapman , who did the budget! Incidentally, school identity Brian Pender retires this year after an outstanding contribution since 1989.
The Canopy Connection, the retailers' organisation in the town centre, has made progress. They market their area, and have development plans. They agreed to a rates increase of $150,000 to produce a fund for their own use. This self-funding mechanism is a fantastic success! Unfortunately, the big plans for the city centre will cost millions and ratepayers are unconvinced . Finally, at the lowest end of the humour scale: Where shall we put the new Pukerua Bay toilet? The question defeated us, so we will put up a new sign instead. I presume it will read “Go Home” or “Hold On”.
Final note:
I began the blog because I believe councillors have a responsibility to inform people about issues and their opinions. I hope that debate develops and in that way our region becomes smarter and the Councils make better decisions. The letters copied here are in their original form, and not the way they were published by the newspaper. Most of the letters were sent to the Kapi Mana News, The Porirua News, The Dominion-Post, the Whitby NewsBrief, or the Northerner.
Robert Shaw
Porirua City Councillor