Category: Cycling

At last one city is fighting back against the traffic congestion inducing cycleways in its city centre. Sadly, it’s not Auckland or anywhere in New Zealand but across the ditch in Sydney where authorities are to remove a cycleway from the CBD to make room for a bus lane. Naturally the cry baby snowflakes that comprise the cycle lobby are upset. It’s not enough for them that one cycleway is to be replaced by two more on a different route. Oh no! They have to take to the streets and protest by throwing their toys out of the cot.

Cyclists protest removal of cycleway in Sydney CBD

Cyclists came out in force on Sunday to protest against the state government's decision to remove a bike path from the city's central business district.

The government plans to remove the dedicated north-south cycleway on College Street in favour of a bus lane. It will be replaced by two new cycleways down Castlereagh Street and Liverpool Street.

More than 2000 cyclists use Sydney's College Street cycleway each day but that will not stop the NSW government from ripping it up.

Bicycle NSW chief executive Ray Rice criticised the government for failing to take into account cyclists' safety.

"What they haven't really considered is the 2000 riders per day who will continue to ride this area as it's the best route from the eastern suburbs to the Macquarie Street area."

"The government has proposed that riders should be able to use the Kent Street cycleway. Well, that's a bit like closing the Western Distributor to cars and telling the cars to use the Cahill Expressway. It's just not practical."

Mr Rice said cyclists held the protest "to show the government there are many, many riders who are concerned about safety issues".

By now there are few who still believe the introduction of cycleways is about ‘safety’. It is not, nor ever was. As the cyclists themselves point out they will continue to use College Street because it is convenient. In truth they don’t need this or any other cycleway to commute to work. The only users of cycleways are tourists or the occasional sedate female rider. Meanwhile, the lycra brigade use the open roads even when cycleways are provided. This can be witnessed any day in Quay Street or any other busy central Auckland street.

Cycleways are simply a badge for generation snowflakes’ Green Agenda 21 virtue signalling. They are part of their ‘we hate cars because they use fossil fuel’ cause celebre led by lycra clad social justice warriors who want to ‘save the planet’.

As far as solving the more prosaic problem of traffic congestion in the inner cities cycleways are as useless as tits of the proverbial. Good on Sydney for showing some common sense at last. Let’s hope all cities follow suit and rip up these useless, money sucking wastes of time and effort.

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Downer pulls out of flawed Skypath project

21/4/2017

Skypath, the cycle activist’s wet dream of a bridge just for them attached to the Auckland Harbour Bridge, has been dealt another blow. This time it’s the major public roading construction firm Downers that has pulled out of the deal citing complexity. The cycle activist directors are now saying the Public Private Partnership deal struck with Auckland Council can be re-negotiated. We all know what that means – more ratepayers’ money.

Skypath was sold to financially illiterate Auckland Councillors on the promise that it would be self funding. However, they made the stupid undertaking that if it wasn’t, Auckland ratepayers would pick up the tab.

Comments on the Whaleoil blog are spot on .

What that means is that the job is far more complex than planned, and experts like Downer say it can’t work…for them…or anyone else. But note that there are now talks of altering the PPP…in other words the project is now about to get a whole lot more expensive. This always happens with marginal projects like this…and the politicians don’t care, it’s not their money.

Woodward [Skypath Director] said there had been no financial cost for Downer pulling out as the SkyPath construction partner.

“In many respects, it’s been valuable their [Downer’s] involvement, because they’ve checked the feasibility of the design work and reviewed the whole project. They’ve done that at their own cost, so there’s no cost to the SkyPath project itself,” Woodward said.

Bludging off council AND the construction company. Nice one, these road maggots are ever on the bludge.

Auckland councillor for the North Shore ward Chris Darby said…

“This is a showpiece project and whoever’s name is on that come opening day will get a lot of exposure. They know about that, and the incoming contractor will know about that as well.”

What hogwash. Does anyone remember who built the harbour bridge? Or the Sky Tower? Or any other piece of infrastructure? Of course not. No one except politicians builds anything for the bronze plaque on the foundations. Downer and any other construction company build things to make money, and Downer have looked at this dopey project and worked out that the plans and costings are so flawed they can’t make any money out of it.

Another of Len’s hospital passes.

Nobody has caused more waste of money or traffic congestion in Auckland than cycle activists. They control the transport planners who have wasted hundreds of millions on cycle lanes designed solely to narrow roads and increase congestion with the aim of forcing the public to use expensive, subsidised public transport.

The trouble is public transport is very, very expensive, especially when it has to be retrofitted as in Auckland. Expecting ratepayers to pick up the tab for massive transport infrastructure is one of idiocies of the age. All transport is inter-connected, from the road outside your house in Auckland to the highway to Bluff. It should be taken out of the hands of ratepayers and paid for by taxpayers. This would allow rates to be brought under control instead of forever outstripping inflation while money is directed to the most beneficial and cost effective transport solutions for the nation as a whole.

Cycle and pedestrian access across the Waitemata harbour would then be part of the next, long overdue harbour bridge. It would mean the snowflakes of Cycle Auckland would have to wait a while, but better that than create yet another long term burden for Auckland’s hard-pressed ratepayers.

Associated blogs:
How Skypath is fleecing ratepayers
Skypath another Heart of the City debacle in the making?

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Pink frosting fails to twinkle on Lightpath cycleway

6/3/2017

The fairy pink twinkle dust coating

The ultra expensive bright pink twinkle paint used to adorn the ‘Lightpath’ cycleway in central Auckland has failed just a year after the opening of the $18 million project.

The special paint was supplied by a company called Resin Surfaces at an extra cost to the ratepayers of Auckland of $270,000. Ratepayers have now been told they will be footing the $115,000 repair bill because Council was in fact penny-pinching over the original amount. Apparently, the repair work is not under warranty because the contractor allegedly told Auckland Transport they needed to add a sunscreen coating but failed to do so.

The pathway could have been painted with the tried and tested green paint supplied by the same company for all cycleways and bus lanes. This would have been the most cost effective solution for Auckland ratepayers who were footing the bill. However, the lobby group Bike Auckland and their activists deeply embedded in Auckland Transport staff wanted to make this particular cycleway – it cost $18 million – ‘special’. Their ‘special’ friend, the general manager at Resin Surfaces, the company profiting from this contract, is cycle activist Kyle Donovan.

Here is Bike Auckland boasting about its fairy dust.

When Kyle Donegan turned up at the Bike Auckland launch party last week, he handed me a small box containing a handful of glittery pink stuff. A little bit sandy, a little bit sparkly, it looked like fairy dust. And it might as well be – it’s a sample of the recycled glass aggregate that, when mixed with a resin base, forms the “pink frosting” on the magical new Nelson St pathway.

It has been alleged that Resin Surface gained the original contract for the paint job over a cheaper bid by a rival company. Now Bike Auckland is lobbying for yet another ‘special’ paint colour, this time a deep red, to be used on various cycle projects around the city. You know what they say - follow the money.

What is going on here? Is this another example of incompetence from the cycle management staff of Auckland Transport? Or, is there another cosy arrangement between Auckland Transport and one of its contractors as there was in the recent corruption scandal involving Auckland Transport staff and Progenz? Why should the ratepayers of Auckland be forced to pay for pink fairy dust to meet the special needs of a few cyclists at a cost of nearly $400k? Why is Auckland installing ever more cycleways around Auckland when even the Chief Executive Officer Stephen Towns admits they cause traffic congestion?

The Council seem to be trying to hide behind the excuse that this project was funded via the City Centre Targeted Rate. It does not matter if it is rates from businesses or households, spending over a quarter of a million dollars on pink twinkle dust that isn’t fit for purpose and then wasting another $115,000 on repairs on what has been a white elephant is a clear example of the Council wasting ratepayer money.

It is this mix of unnecessary expenditure and bureaucratic incompetence that has made Auckland Council the paradigm for the very worst excesses of local government in New Zealand.

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Roche’s dirty little secrets

28/2/2017

Hard left Green Party List MP Denise Roche is one of the top ten most expensive opposition MPs with a carbon footprint that that could pollute the atmosphere all on its own. Whaleoil has been doing some fact checking on the travel and accommodation expenses incurred at our expense by opposition party MPs. These are mostly left alone by msm (mainstream media) because it’s much more fun for the leftist msm to target National.

You can read the full story with all the travel and accommodation expenses listed here. The blog concludes:

The dirty 11 who have hit the $200,000 mark. I wonder how many others get over the $200,000 mark before the next elections.

Andrew Little (Labour, List) $324,160
Kelvin Davis (Labour) $263,289
Winston Peters (NZ First) $223, 583
Damon O’Connor (Labour) $218,212
David Cunliffe (Labour) $216,441
Mika Whaitiri (Labour) $216,030
Kennedy Graham (Green, list) $211,658
Denise Roche(Green, list) $207,454
Nanaia Mahuata (Labour) $206,454
Steffan Browning (Green,list) $205,314
Adrian Rurawhe (Labour) $202,722

Roche is one of those sanctimonious people who can’t resist telling the rest of us what to do and how to behave. This is especially so on Waiheke where she has her main residence.

The problem with being ‘holier than thou’, as all Green Party MPs and their fellow travellers are wont to be, is twofold. Firstly, they are exceeding unlikely to live up to the lofty standards they assign themselves. Secondly, those who are the recipients of their disdain are the majority of the common, hard working taxpayers who pay their salaries and benefits but do not share their Cultural Marxist worldview. These Kiwis don’t take well to being lectured at by hypocrites, and Roche is a prime example of a Green hypocrite.

She is happy to shriek with disgust about the carbon footprint of those awful fossil fuel burning electricity providers who generate cheap electricity for the world’s poorest, yet here she is with one of the dirtiest carbon footprints of all the country’s opposition MPs.

She lectures the young and impressionable with horror stories about catastrophic climate change leading to sea level rises that will flood millions out of their homes. Yet she has chosen to live in a waterfront property on elite Waiheke Island. A cynic might suspect she’s doesn’t believe a word of her own hype.

She has been seen loading her plastic bags full of shopping into her virtue signalling electric car, while she lectures the country about the environmental disaster that is, you guessed it, plastic bags.

No wonder Generation Zero, Auckland’s inner city Green hipster snowflakes, wanted the ageing hypocrite Roche replaced as Green Party candidate for Auckland Central. They wanted bright, young, Chloe Swarbrick, who attracted 30,000 Auckland votes in the recent Mayoral election. The best Roche was able to do in the last general Election was get 2000 votes, mostly from her support base of old hags on Waiheke. Roche’s intervention last time split the Left vote allowing Nikki Kaye to be elected for National. The Greens have certainly missed a trick in not opting for Swarbrick.

Roche’s carbon-emitting, jet-setting elite lifestyle at our expense has served her well. She has become very rich at our expense. She doubtless considers it her moral duty to take another $200,000 plus from the taxpayer on top of her $160,000 plus annual salary and other allowances worth around half a million a year. Then there’s the pension.

Occasionally, he drives her ebike around Waiheke to show how much she cares for the environment. It's all about looking the part, but her dirty little secrets tell the real story.

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Is corruption alive and kicking in Auckland Council?

22/2/2017

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@NZ Herald

Former Auckland Transport manager Murray Noone, and roading contractor Projenz managing director Stephen Borlase were jailed today for five years and five and a half years respectively for taking and giving bribes worth over $1 million.

In delivering the jail terms Judge Sally Fitzgerald commented that the culture of bribery and corruption in Auckland Transport was much wider than just these two guilty parties.

The NZ Taxpayers’ Union has issued the following media release

JUDGE'S COMMENTS SUGGEST BRIBERY MORE WIDESPREAD

Reacting to the sentencing of Stephen Borlase and Murray Noone for bribery, Jordan Williams, Executive Director of the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union says:

“Justice Fitzgerald’s has made very clear that illegal gift-giving and backhanders were much wider at Auckland Transport than just these two individuals. She notes this a number of times in the decision. While we welcome these prison sentences – which reflect the seriousness of the offending – authorities still have more work to do to weed out this sort behavior and ensure organisations like Auckland Transport are corruption free.

"The decision calls into question the whole 'collaborative approach' model of procurement applied by Auckland Transport. What we find most concerning is that despite questions to Auckland Transport by our collegues at the Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance, nothing appears to have changed. Apparently no lessons have been learned."
END

Anyone who has been involved with Auckland Council, and in particular Auckland Transport, will be aware of the vastly inflated sums quoted for even the simplest job. For example, a skilled civil engineer requested his local board put a small pedestrian access over a culvert. His estimate was that the job would cost around $2000. When his local board requested a quote from Auckland Transport the figure was ten times that amount. Even accounting for additional fees, consents etc the cost was outrageous. The access was never built and the civil engineer gave up his quest in disgust.

Will there now be a general enquiry into how contracts are awarded and how costs are justified? Certainly one would be justified based on the judge’s comments.
Despite assurances from Auckland Transport that they are now squeaky clean some dubious practices continue.

One of the big concerns of Judge Fitzgerald when she delivered her decision on the corruption case was that Progenz had effectively got an ‘insider’ in Auckland Council when ‘their man’ Murray Noone was employed by Auckland Transport. Has anything been done to stop the conflicts of interest by consultant groups who have the power to place their own people inside Auckland Council?

There is evidence that activist groups are operating through private consulting firms who have large contracts with Auckland Council. This is how they operate. First the contract consultant employs people from an activist group, say a group like Cycle Auckland. The consultants receive contracts to engage permanent staff for Auckland Council. They place more activists in Council positions. They then have the power to influence decisions and place more contracts with the consulting group and so the cycle is perpetuated. Something similar happened in the Progenz/Rodney District Council/Auckland Transport case.

The growth in the power and influence of cycling groups in the last six years might well be a case in point. A hugely disproportionate amount of Council funds has been spent on cycling in the last six years, especially when less than 1% of commuters are cyclists. Cycle lanes abound pushing out cars and increasing the traffic congestion in central Auckland. Luke Christiansen, a cycle advocate, is employed by consultants MRCagney along with other known cycle advocates. MRCagney were paid $3 million in consulting fees for Auckland Council and Auckland Transport in the last two years alone.

This prompts a whole series of questions. Is there any connection between the growth in Council funding for cycling and the numbers of cycle advocates employed by Council? Were any of the consulting fees paid to MRCagney used to appoint managers for Auckland Transport? Specifically, were any cycling managers engaged by MRCagney staff on behalf of Auckland Transport? Has Auckland Transport paid MRCagney any contract fees for work on cycling related contracts?

Power and influence might not qualify as bribery and corruption but, given the comments from Judge Fitzgerald, Auckland Council, and particularly Auckland Transport, should be super vigilant about how they conduct themselves so that conflicts of interest do not occur. Otherwise ratepayers will suspect the cycle is happening all over again.

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Waiheke’s summer of discontent

17/1/2017

Rubbish piled up by Little O bus stop

Waiheke has been in the news for all the wrong reasons over the summer – the Peter Leitch racism row, the Waiheke drug gangs dealing at the Hawkes Bay music festival. To add to the general feeling that all is not well on Waiheke, the island is struggling to cope with the seasonal influx of visitors.

Rubbish is accumulating uncollected in holiday spots such as Little Oneroa Beach where the local board has removed rather than added to the number of rubbish bins available. Council toilets there are all but insanitary because they are not cleaned regularly enough to cope with the increased demand, and the hundreds of thousands handed to the Waiheke Resources Trust for the Little Oneroa Stream Clean Up Project has yet to produce a single result.

The huge double decker buses are also causing problems along the island’s narrow road corridor with reports of buses toppling into gutters or side swiping cars. Often the bus drivers are unsure of their routes. I saw one trying to turn around the roundabout at the top of Oneroa into Oue St, a street already narrowed to one way by parking on both sides. I can understand the logic of needing as much capacity as possible to cope with the queues at the popular vineyards and when the island is inundated with an additional 50000 visitors for Sculpture on the Gulf, but the additional weight of these buses on the already fragile road surface will be taking its toll. I wonder if the vehicles are not in fact over the weight limit for our roads.

It is little wonder that buses, and visitors, don’t know where they are going because the local board has allowed ATEED to remove any visitor information services in Oneroa. Consequently, every shop, the police station, banks and real estate office in Oneroa must waste hours every week answering questions from passers by about how to get to particular destinations. Visitors feel abandoned. Waiheke is once again over promising and under performing.

In many ways this outcome is not surprising. The Board is led by Walden who has made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t want visitors on the island and their needs are not a priority. What is a priority are more plans, as we shall see.

Parking everywhere is at a premium. There are simply not enough car parks to meet demand anywhere on the island. What solutions does your local board propose? At Matiatia it will take car parks away from general demand and give them to mobility sticker holders, but at a price. They must now pay for the privilege at the current rate. The 30 minute car parks will remain but will no longer be free. What is not proposed anywhere is additional car parking capacity. What is proposed is, you guessed it, more shared paths so cyclists can mow down hapless pedestrians on footpaths.

Meanwhile, what precious money the Board has it is wasting on more ‘plans’. Another $65000 slipped through its fingers at the December meeting as it handed over the money to Auckland Transport so it could ‘investigate’ the traffic in Belgium Street and Putiki Road. The usual complainers and moaners will have been in their ears about having to wait as long as five minutes to get out of the Countdown car park on the only time of the week when Belgium Street is very busy – during the Saturday market at Ostend Domain. There is no problem on Belgium Street. There will be one if Walden gets his way and installs a cycle only path.

Putiki Road is another matter. The narrow one way road is unfit to handle the amount of traffic it now gets as more commercial businesses open. Before handing a large sum over to AT the Board should first have called for an officers’ report for a preliminary assessment. No such report was on the local board agenda. Where was the break down of costs from Auckland Transport to justify such a large amount for a ‘report’? Auckland Transport is well known for inflating its figures and for its corrupt practices. A vigilant Board should not be accepting any amounts plucked out of thin air without a detailed report on what it is getting for its money.

As a last minute Christmas present the Board decided to give another $50,000 to add to the hundreds of thousands already handed over to that bottomless pit that is the Waiheke Boat Club, for its hard stand on Council reserve on the Causeway. This time it wanted funds for a pathway. There was no accompanying report for consideration by board members before the meeting. Apparently the money was needed ‘urgently’ so it was handed over under an extraordinary item added to the agenda at the last minute. That has become the norm if you’re one of Walden’s favoured groups (and the Boat Club is). No need to bother with all the rigmarole of going through funding rounds for grants like lesser groups. You just whisper your needs in Walden’s ear and it is done while the sheep tag along for the ride.

The new Board members are showing their lack of wisdom and knowledge. Following the failed leadership of the uneducated Walden who has learned nothing after four years on the Board, except perhaps how to waste public money, is a recipe for yet more waste of precious resources. Some Board members were unhappy with this slapdash approach. If so, they should have voted against the motion. Blindly following Walden will win them no kudos from their supporters who put them there as a check on his profligate waste of the last three years.

Given the big infrastructure problems now arising on the island it is little wonder there is a general air of discontent. Rubbish piling up in the streets is reminiscent of the UK's Winter of Discontent in 1979. Already the new board is under performing. On present form I can only see it getting worse.

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Goff wants tourism tax to pay for his wasteful spending

28/11/2016

This afternoon new Mayor Phil Goff has announced he wants to place a visitor levy on every tourist coming to Auckland so that he can pay for his wish list of expensive new projects, like light rail along Dominion Road to the airport, moving the port and a new waterfront stadium.

As predicted pre-election, Goff will be looking for new taxes, levies, and charges to fund his wasteful spending so that he can keep his promise of rates rises no greater than 2.5%.

Stuff reports:

Less than two months into being elected, Goff wants Auckland Council to consider pegging Aucklander’s annual rate to 2.5 per cent while accommodation providers must collect a visitor levy.

That’s right, let’s add to the tax and collection burden of countless small business and damage the main driver of the Auckland economy, tourism, at the same time. Good thinking, Batman.

The plan, along with other Goff proposals such as a targeted rate for new large-scale developments and a regional fuel tax, would support Auckland’s growth, he said.

Why doesn’t Goff opt for the more obvious way of raising money, which is to cut wasteful spending, instead of increasing taxes. Goodness knows there’s enough wasteful spending around, what with ATEED’s proposed re-branding, as well as paying for the re-branding of lobby groups like Cycle Action to change their name to Bike Auckland.

The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has issued the following press release.

HOW ABOUT A STOP TO RIDICULOUS SPENDING RATHER THAN A TAX ON TOURISM AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP?

The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is slamming a new proposal by Auckland Mayor Phil Goff to introduce an Auckland visitor levy as a tax on tourism and entrepreneurship. Spokesperson Jo Holmes says:

“Aucklanders elected Phil Goff to tackle the Council’s wasteful spending, not find sneaky new ways to tax more. Why isn’t Mr Goff putting as much effort into cutting ATEED’s budget – $500,000 of which was recently wasted on a new slogan – as he is in dreaming up ways to drain more money from Aucklanders' pockets?”

“Every dollar of tourism tax collected, in one dollar less for the business and organisations which Auckland Council is claiming to help. If Phil Goff really thinks taxing tourists so that ATEED can send staff to junkets to the Olympics, translate new slogans and appoint staff to their office in London, helps Auckland’s economy, he needs to get out more."

"Auckland Council should put an end to its ridiculous spending before it even thinks about new taxes and digging deeper into other people's pockets," concludes Ms Holmes.

Only a dyed-in-the-wool Socialist could believe that increasing taxes will be good for the Auckland economy.

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Auckland’s profligate years leave Goff with little room to manoeuvre

19/10/2016

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The second three years of the Supercity could be called the ‘profligate’ years. Within a few days of the 2013 election Len Brown became a lame duck second term mayor after his philandering became public. With no possibility of a third term Brown decided he must leave a ‘legacy’ and so went on a spending binge. This forced up rates to an unsustainable level, created a debt mountain, and bloated the bureaucracy. As a result, Goff’s promises to spend even more on new projects are simply untenable. When coupled with a majority of his Councillors pledging fiscal responsibility for the next three years, it leaves Goff with little room to manoeuvre.

He will have his work cut out finding the money to continue the project that is sucking the life blood from the city – the City Rail Link (CRL). I am told by sources in Council that the next CRL cost blow out will take the project over $5billion, and that’s not the end of the escalation. All Auckland gets for this ridiculous amount is three kilometres of track and three underground stations. Contrast this with the $7 billion cost of building the nearly 30 kilometres of tunnel 100 metres underground that is CERN in Switzerland. It is packed with the world’s most advanced technology and is unlocking the secrets of the universe. The CRL won’t even unlock the city’s traffic congestion.

Despite having limited options, Goff could undo some of the lasting harm created by Brown. He can get rid of the large numbers of ‘hangers on’ who have grown fat on the public trough. People like the old ‘has been’ Sir Bob Harvey and the new wannabe Ludo Campbell-Reid should be consigned to the scrap heap along with a whole host of Brown’s mates in his personal spin department.

Now that the Auckland Plan is in place he can get rid of the excess ‘planners’. He can cut the ‘comms’ (that communications not communist in case you’re wondering) department in half. He can provide more stringent parameters around Auckland transport spending and stop wasting in on traffic congestion causing cycleways that cater for the less than 1% of Aucklanders. He can use the money to fix the roads in the 99% of Auckland outside the City Centre that has been denuded of funding to pay for the pastime of a few lycra-clad, middle aged, inner city renters.

He can put the local back into local government by using some of his cost savings to bolster the funds of all local boards, but only with strict checks and balances in place to make sure it is spent on local infrastructure. Some local boards have been every bit as profligate as Len Brown as lax controls have allowed them to channel funding into unaccountable politically motivated ‘Trusts’. Waiheke and Waitakere have been particularly guilty of funding Green party ambitions this way.

Goff has promised much despite knowing his hands would be tied. He can blame Brown for not being able to fulfil his promises. He will have a honeymoon period where he can set a more responsible path to get the city back to basics. If he does that, while creating a more collegiate Governing Body, then he might yet be the mayor Auckland deserves. I live in hope

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SkyPath Residents’ concerns crushed by Council-funded blackmail

31/8/2016

The Cage

Council has used its might against its ratepayers by forcing those opposed to the cycle bridge across the Auckland harbour (Skypath) to withdraw from pressing their cause through the Environment Court. The Northcote Residents Association cannot afford to financial costs of fighting the four top law firms employed by Council.

Kevin Clarke of the Northcote Residents Association (NRA) had this to say

Northcote Residents have withdrawn their Environment Court appeal against SkyPath, which they consider to be a financial, functional and environmental failure. They also consider that SkyPath is unlikely to ever be implemented and that its blatantly obvious safety hazards alone, should have prevented it from seeing the light of day in the first place. Although Council tells itself that SkyPath is merely a $33M project, its real costs are set to deliver yet another Council blowout, this time set to amount to hundreds of millions.

Skypath is a rort. If it ever goes ahead it will cost the ratepayers of Auckland and taxpayers of New Zealand hundreds of millions. The Public/Private Partnership arrangement is all downside risk for the public and upside profit for the private enterprise trust behind the project. Warning bells should have been ringing loud and clear throughout Council when it found out one of the original Trustees was convicted fraudster Alex Swney.

Alex Swney created the Heart of the City Trust, was its Chief Executive, got Auckland Council to fund it through a targeted rate and ripped off the ratepayer to the tune of $4 million. It took an intervention by the IRD and SFO to finally bring the crook to justice.

Swney was a founding Trustee of the Auckland Harbour Bridge Pathway Trust (the Trust). The Trust has been established to promote a cycleway over Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour called Skypath. The Trust claimed that Skypath would be financially self-supporting and the Trust would be responsible for getting all the necessary funding. After 20 years the Trust would gift the facility to the City.

Council has already opted to underwrite the inevitable failure of the project leaving the ratepayers to pick up the tab despite warnings that the private trust model is the same.

There is a solution that would not destroyed the heritage Northcote Point, as Skypath will, and still provide walkers and cyclists with a crossing point over the Waitemata. All they have to do is be patient and wait a little longer. This has been pointed out by NRA.

Another issue that calls SkyPath’s viability into doubt, arises from recent discussions with the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA).

Information provided by NZTA states the Auckland Harbour Bridge “will allow for ….walking and cycling facilities” and, “four lanes on the existing Bridge, will become redundant” when the next Harbour crossing is installed and that, “the Bridge’s box girders need strengthening to accommodate SkyPath” and that “further strengthening of the Bridge’s box girders is not physically possible, except at connection points”. The SkyPath function could occupy less than two of the four redundant lanes freed up when the next Harbour crossing is implemented, without adding additional stresses to the Bridge and without decreasing its usable life, as SkyPath will. That could be achieved at virtually no cost and far better than SkyPath, since cyclists and pedestrians would be safely separated and would access the facility without causing any neighbourhood any detriment.

SkyPath’s genuinely huge costs, amenity detriment and safety hazards are wholly unnecessary, since the Next Harbour Crossing solves all the problems

SkyPath does not, never could and never will.

Skypath is unsafe, a rort and a waste of ratepayers and taxpayers money. Shame on all Councillors who have supported it.

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Auckland Council $7.6 billion debt means higher rates

30/8/2016

I have been on RadioLive this morning commenting on Auckland Council’s soaring debt after I was contacted by their Newshub Team last night. Auckland is now in the situation that household Council debt is higher than that of Christchurch post earthquake.

I said this can only translate into future higher rates and charges, either as residential rates increases or increased tolls, fees and levies.

Newshub issued a media release last might showing the extent of the problem. They gave Council’s interim unaudited figures showing overall debt rose by 4.1% to $7.6 billion.

Auckland Council's debt rose 4.1 per cent to $7.6 billion in the year ended June
30, as New Zealand's biggest city steps up investment to try to manage the rapid
rise in its population.

The city's unaudited financial statements show $1.4b was invested in the latest
year on renewing and expanding assets such as public transport interchanges,
public parks, and the City Rail link project. That includes $349 million spent
on roads and footpaths, $202m on public transport improvements and $111m on
parks and sporting facilities.

Auckland Council chief financial officer Sue Tindal said debt would continue to
rise over coming years.

Council is using the old trick of revaluing its assets and increasing its borrowing accordingly while refinancing its debt. This is all well and good, but very dangerous if interest rates suddenly rise in the wake of new financial crisis or unknown and unforeseen natural event.

Most of the $1.4 billion Council has spent on infrastructure has been spent on the City Rail Link ($738 million). It has literally been used to create the big black hole under Britomart Transport Centre. The escalating costs of the project are a real cause for concern as is the Council’s reckless commitment to new, very risky projects like Skypath.

If it all turns to worms it is the ratepayers who will end up footing the bill. With debt already over $20,000 per household many will be forced to sell their major asset in order to repay the loans a fiscally irresponsible Council has incurred on their behalf. With Goff (Len Brown on steroids) as the likely new mayor things can only go from bad to worse.

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Will South Aucklanders be forced to ‘get on their bikes’?

15/7/2016

NZTA (New Zealand Transport Authority) is undertaking a ‘The National Urban Cycling Survey’ to help them ‘better understand New Zealand views and opinions about cycling in towns and cities’. In reality the objective is to force people to say they will cycle to work and thereby justify the Government’s spending of $100 million of our taxes on new cycleways.

John Key chose cycleways as his make work, social engineering project for idle hands following the financial collapse of 2008. Since then, the Government has continued to pump our money into the preferred leisure pursuit of rich, urban metrosexuals and mamils, people very like John Key in fact.

NZTA has employed an ‘independent’ market research company to conduct the attitudinal survey to justify the spending. The questions are loaded in favour of getting the result the survey wants. No surprise in that. The market research company gets to keep their survey contract with government and the government gets its desired result.

One of those interviewed by phone has told me the questions are all directed at making the interviewee say they will cycle to work. They are not about which alternative transport modes the public prefers, or the reasons behind their choices. Instead the questioning was persistently about what would make the interviewee switch to cycling. For example, the interviewee was asked, ‘Should cyclists be allowed to ride in the middle of the road so that cars have to wait behind them?’

The interviewee cited the many factors that would not make them change to cycling; the inclement weather in New Zealand; the difficult (hilly) terrain; the need to carry shopping; distance, physical disadvantages, age, travelling in the dark and a preference for other transport modes such as public transport and the healthier option of walking.

Cycling is the preferred religion of metrosexuals and mamils. These creatures inhabit the inner cities. I wonder how many people in South Auckland will welcome being told by Council and Government to get on their bikes, even assuming they can afford them?

Government and local government is experiencing some push back from disgruntled residents and ratepayers in urban areas where citizens are more likely to suffer the adverse effects of cycleways. These adverse effects include increased traffic congestion, removal of on-street parking, and unsafe cycleway design. There is also outrage that so much of their taxes should be spent on so few (less than 1% cycle to work). Cyclist behaviour further alienates the public when cylists prefer to cycle on the roads even when separate cycle lanes are provided, and have a persistent habit of running red lights. The 'Paint It Back' movement in Wellington is one example of the push back. This 'Is Skypath safe?' video is another.

The old proverb ‘you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’ sums up the reality of cycling and the social engineering being carried out to try and force people to ride bikes. It won’t work.

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Goff thinks local boards should not decide local priorities

13/7/2016

In a clear signal that Phil Goff will continue Brown’s legacy of disregarding local board priorities, he has supported Auckland Transport dictating to boards how they spend their very limited budgets. In a stoush between Orakei Local Board and Auckland Transport, the CCO is trying to force the board to spend its discretionary money on a cycleway. What else!

The richest local board in Auckland is fuming at a decision by transport officials to make it pay $2 million for an access-way to a $43m shared path.

The Glen Innes to Tamaki 7km route will connect the eastern suburbs to the city centre. The first section will open this year and it will be completed by 2018.
But Orakei Local Board chairwoman Desley Simpson says the link from Kohimarama through Kepa Bush to the Te Ara Ki Uta Ki Tai cycleway is vital to the project so should be paid for by the Government.

"You shouldn't start a project unless you have the money," she said.

The Orakei local board has been asked to contribute $2m to the project through its Locally Driven Initiatives and Auckland Transport Capital Funds.

The LDI and ATCF are the only funds available to local boards for local projects. If Auckland Council or its CCOs use their muscle to bully local boards into doing what they, rather than the board, want with the very limited funds available to them, then the role of local boards is reduced to less than that of the community boards they replaced.

But Simpson said she didn't think it was fair her local board's funds should be tied up for the next four years providing an "essential part" of the project.

Because of the area's topography, land ownership patterns and the barrier created by the rail corridor, building local links to the path has proven difficult. Simpson said the benefits for the project could only be unlocked by improving access from local communities, but that should not be funded from local boards' modest transport capital investment funds.

However, mayoral candidate Phil Goff, who was at the local board's most recent meeting, said local communities were expected to contribute something to show their commitment. "With resources always limited our communities often have to stump up with the local contribution towards the cost."

Auckland Transport is building a number of local connections throughout the path and were working with Maungakiekie-Tamaki and Orakei Local Boards, a spokesman said. Further options would be investigated in the next three-year programme from 2018 but the first section from Glen Innes to St Johns Rd will open this year.

Goff’s comments should sound a warning to all local boards and ratepayers should he become mayor. Local board budgets are already cut to the bone. The Mayor, Governing Body and CCOs must not be allowed to dictate to local boards how they spend their discretionary money. Goff is simply Len Brown on steroids.

Len Brown and Auckland Transport have a history of recklessly pursuing projects, the CRL comes to mind, without adequate funding in place.

Time to take a stand, Desley, and tell the CCO ‘on your bike’.

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Auckland Transport triples car parking fees

12/7/2016

New car parking charges designed to drive cars off the road to make way for cycle lanes and force drivers onto public transport are being brought in by Auckland Transport. Eight hour parking in the CBD will triple to $63, new pay and display parking meters will be appearing like weeds alongside any street parking. Outer CBD parking (eg Wynyard Quarter and Grafton Gully) increases to $42 from $16 for eight hours.

Auckland Transport says they are trying to discourage long-term parking in the CBD by encouraging motorists into car parking buildings, but in reality the CCO has a policy of making the CBD a car free zone. It intends getting rid of car parking buildings as quickly as possible in the CBD, hence the removal of the Downtwn car park during the redevelopment of the QE Square to Albert St block. This has been policy from day one of the CCO.

Next up will be a tripling of car parking fees in the suburbs and the end of free park-and-ride schemes as the ideologically motivated policy of driving cars off the road and forcing everyone to take public transport or ride bikes is rolled out city wide. After all, Council has to pay for the ballooning cost of its white elephant City Rail Link somehow given that the Government has yet to come to the party and Len Brown has decided to push on regardless. This single project is bankrupting the city forcing debt levels as high as they can go and still Auckland Transport is pressing ahead with more hair-brained schemes like Skypath.

Auckland Transport is pissing in the wind if it thinks it can drive cars off the road. New car registrations reached 4810 in March this year just short of its all time high of 4959 in June 2008. The cost of motoring remains stable as world oil prices continue at historic lows and look set to continue that way as estimates of world oil supply increase year by year. Forget the ‘peak oil’ myth of the Greens. Actually, forget any mythology promoted by the Greens.

By the time the dreaded transport ‘planners’ have their way and the first train grinds into action on its CRL loop the scheme will be twelve to fifteen years or more in the making. In that time the world will have passed it by. A car revolution is on its way and will change the face of transport forever. It will be people power, a million individuals making a million different decisions on how best to live their lives, that will decide the future. It will not be the ‘planners’. They are far too slow in outlook and implementation for the modern world. It is all but impossible to plan ten years ahead, let along the thirty years envisaged in transport planning. In a dynamic, fast moving world ‘planners’ are redundant.

Now there’s a huge cost saving idea for Auckland Transport. Get rid of all those redundant planners and you could save us all a packet, lower car parking fees and still have enough left over to encourage some public transport. Better still licence those cyclists and make them pay for their ‘special needs’ cycleways.

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Skypath a disaster for Heritage Northcote Point and Auckland

3/7/2016

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Skypath is a disaster not only for the residents of Northcote Point but for all Auckland ratepayers who will end up picking up the tab when this white elephant fails to meet its projected patronage numbers. Just as the cost of Len Brown’s vanity project the CRL has already doubled to $5 billion and, I predict, will double again before the next mayoralty term is out, so has the cost of Skypath gone from $30 million to double that amount while the project is still in the planning stage.

Both these politically driven projects fail to meet any cost/benefit analysis or business case. Yet they are being foisted on hapless residents and ratepayers to meet the needs of the few ‘special needs’ people of Generation Zero, Cycle Action and their activist Auckland Council activist bureaucrats.

These two vanity projects alone will bankrupt the city because the government has yet to commit to the CRL. NZTA has yet to commit to Skypath, and Council has already reached its debt limit. Without taxpayer money neither project is viable. Despite this, Auckland Council is foolishly pushing ahead with both projects leaving Auckland ratepayers alone to pick up the tab.

The people of Northcote Point are fighting a rearguard action to keep their unique heritage area of Auckland safe from an invasion of mamil cyclists who want to destroy their heritage suburb forever. They need money to fight for their area in the coming Environment Court action that seeks to stop the Skypath madness in its tracks. To this end they have set up a ‘Give a little’ page asking for donations to help fund legal costs for their fight in the Environment Court.

No pedestrians will use Skypath, touted as being a shared path. To do so they would be taking their lives in their hands. It is only lycra-clad mamils that will make the long journey across the bridge into the city and they will attack the steep downhill stretch of the harbour bridge at speeds in excess of 70kph in an enclosed cage. Safety experts warn of the consequences.

As Skypath opponents point out “SkyPath is effectively a short-term, politically driven extravagance that simply cannot accommodate the huge crowds needed for its financial viability, either on the pathway itself, or at the end of the cul-de-sac suburbs (Northcote Point and Westhaven), where its entries are located."

This madness will continue until Auckland votes to rid its Council of spendthrift elected members like the Terrible Ten and replaces them with people of common sense and financial prudence.

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Sanctimonious self-righteousness sealed in Spandex

1/6/2016

How cyclists turned themselves from eco-friend to eco-foe

There was a time a few years ago when it seemed sensible to create a safer road environment for cycling, and even to promote cycling as a beneficial pastime, but all that has changed. The entitlement mentality among cyclists has developed into full blown narcissism. Their arrogance and disregard for the law that has turned a sympathetic public against them, and all they sit for.

The push back against cycleways and cyclists is gathering momentum around the country with Wellington leading the way.

All of us can identify with the sentiments of this article written for the UK’s Daily Mail but every bit as true for NZ.

…while obeying the law or the rules of the road may be obligatory for lesser mortals such as car drivers, cyclists believe that they themselves are above such irritating trifles.

As many others have also protested, cyclists regularly ride through red lights or fail to stop at pedestrian crossings — even when a car has just done so.

They ride the wrong way up one-way streets. They ride on the pavement, causing pedestrians to move sharply out of the way — sometimes into the road! — to avoid being knocked down.

In short, they behave as if they are lords of the universe. Small wonder, when they are generally treated with veneration as the harbingers of a morally elevated society. One particular campaign by The Times champions them as such unimpeachable icons of progress that it seems to suggest the entire road network should be reconfigured for their convenience.

Two days ago, it triumphantly reported an unprecedented £913 million initiative by local councils to put cycling at the heart of public transport.

Certainly, the toll of cyclists killed on the roads is alarmingly high, and it is only right that attention should be paid to making cycling safer.

Nevertheless, at least some of the time these accidents are caused by cyclists taking astonishing chances with their own lives — riding at night without any lights, cutting up cars or buses or overtaking on the inside so drivers cannot see them.

But none of these things is ever deemed to be their fault. The blame is always laid on others.

For such folk, every single aspect of their lives is a statement — about themselves, of course, and in particular how worthy and progressive they are.

So for them, the cycle is not just a machine for getting about with two wheels, a saddle and a handlebar. No, it is a badge of unimpeachable virtue.

It effectively says of its rider: look how environmentally conscious I am, how socially responsible, how clean-living, humble and powerless — compared to the dreadful Mr Toads behind the wheels of their powerful, filthy, anti-social cars which are all going to destroy the planet if they don’t choke us all to death first!

That’s why politicians such as David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson have used the image of themselves on their cycles to burnish their progressive credentials (slightly dampened in the case of Mr Cameron, when it was discovered he was being followed on his cycle by a car with his official papers on the back seat).

This assumption of superior virtue confers an air of effortless entitlement, which causes certain cyclists to believe they can break laws with impunity — and if they mow down any pedestrians, well it’s the pedestrians’ own fault.

It is sanctimonious self-righteousness sealed in Spandex — and the rest of us just have to get out of the damned way.

….cyclists are no better or worse than the rest of us. But when their faults are pointed out, they react as if they really think they are untouchable.

One journalist wrote recently that after criticising cyclists for their behaviour, she received death threats, vile insults and obscene abuse.

It’s high time such cyclo-fascists were brought down off their towering saddles and made to observe the same laws and social conventions as the rest of us. Inspiring sportsmen they may be; demi-gods behind handlebars they are not.

Cycleways are a 'nice to have' local amenity like sportsfields, but when Auckland Council is knee deep in debt and no closer to solving trafffic woes after six years of the Supercity there is nothing to spare to satisfy the entitlement mentality of spoilt brats.

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George Wood calls out ‘secretive’ Skypath as Environment Court battle looms

26/5/2016

You know something is fishy when Auckland Council refuses to discuss the spending of tens of millions of ratepayers’ money in public. That was the position this week when reports available to Council on the financial viability of Skypath were not made public. This is exactly why Council is regarded with suspicion by the public. It lacks transparency and accountability.

It was left to Councillor George Wood to sum up the current position on social media.

Currently the costs around the SkyPath project are hidden behind confidentiality. Auckland Council officers are now considering what they can release. Until a decision is made on what can be released I am not at liberty to discuss the financials of the project. Surely any agreement which involves tens of millions of dollars needs to be out in the open for public scrutiny.

Neither Auckland Transport nor New Zealand Transport Agency has taken up the SkyPath idea. Auckland Transport looked at the concept and didn’t take it further. NZTA have seen fit to build cycleway facilities in other parts of Auckland (Greenhithe Bridge, North Western cycleway, SeaPath, Spaghetti Junction and now Glen Innes to Tamaki Drive.) They won't engage with SkyPath.

Thus far, it has been mooted as a public-private partnership (PPP) with Auckland Council, when in fact any such PPP should be between the sponsoring trust and NZTA. Auckland Council has no ownership or operational responsibility for the Harbour Bridge, and it has no legal or moral right to commit ratepayer funds to the project. The full financials have never been revealed to the public so people have no idea what they could be liable for in the area of costs.

Finally until a business case is released, following the technical analysis, there is no certainty what loadings NZTA will allow on their bridge.

George Wood has criticised Skypath from the outset. Here he is taking us through some of the problems

The whole Skypath, cycle crossing clip-ons to the Auckland Harbour Bridge, project is a dog – another one – that Council should not even be considering let alone underwriting. It will do nothing the help fix the city’s traffic congestion problems; will cause traffic chaos in Northcote Point heritage village; has raised huge safety concerns; is not financially viable; will fail to meet over-inflated patronage figures and will leave ratepayers to pick up the tab. As it is wasn’t fraught enough, it was announced today that the whole issue is going to the Environment Court.

Auckland Harbour Bridge's proposed SkyPath set for Environment Court
The brakes are on again for Auckland's controversial Harbour Bridge SkyPath cycle and pedestrian crossing.

Mediation talks on the controversial $33 million proposed project have failed.
SkyPath Trust and six opposing residents groups couldn't reach agreement leaving it up to the Environment Court to decide if the project proceeds.
Sources on both sides said consensus couldn't be reached on design and planning factors affecting traffic, parking and resident privacy.

It's likely Environment Court chief judge Laurie Newhook will now decide SkyPath's fate in court hearings.

Rates campaigner David Thornton attacked secrecy around Council's involvement in the public-private SkyPath project saying elected councillors "appear to have been relatively starved of financial information, despite huge sums being spent or promised so far".

"It seems ratepayers are having their money spent at the whim of a council which is not in control of its spending decisions," Thornton said.

Thornton believes SkyPath's projected cost has increased.

"I'm suspicious about what's in that report, we know the last time [council] came up with a price it was $33 million and at that stage there was no business case, a business case may come up with the need to spend more money."

Associated links:
Skypath another Heart of the City debacle in the making?

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How Skypath is fleecing ratepayers

25/5/2016

A media statements put out by David Thornton of No More Rates today shows how the Skypath project doesn't stack up. The case for Skypath is so weak decisions to fund the project have to be made in secret. Cycleway projects are white elephants that will cripple ratepayers for years to come. There is no viable business case for funding Skypath. The project will not in any way ease traffic congestion. It is a pure and simple waste of ratepayers' money. If Councillors are looking for ways to tackle its debt crisis they could start by cutting out this useless project.

NoMoreRates
The nationwide campaign to reform the present system of council funding

[statement from David Thornton]

SkyPath costs heading to ratepayers in secret.

Exactly how much Auckland ratepayers are being stung for the SkyPath project is being discussed at the Town Hall today, in secret session.

SkyPath is a cycling/walking pathway which is to be attached to the eastern clip-on of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

From a $20 million project promoted a few short years ago years ago the project cost is now about $34 million – and the Council is to be the guarantor for an, as yet, unknown amount which has been labelled a “limited revenue underwrite”,
The project is being proposed as a Public Private Partnership with PIP, an infrastructure fund, which is to provide funds for the construction and operation of SkyPath.

A Business Plan produced three years ago suggested a levy of $2 for each visitor crossing which would provide all the necessary income to build and run the pathway over 20 year period. After that time a new Harbour Crossing would be in place and the current bridge would incorporate new cyclist/pedestrian facilities.

For the last two years little real cost and funding information has been presented to ratepayers, in particular there has been no new business case with realistic patronage forecasts.

It is that business case which will indicate the likely risk the Council will take on board under its guarantee. That guarantee itself is underwritten by ratepayers.
All this financial information is being presented to the Council under ‘Confidential’ at today’s Governing Body meeting.

The Council has already approved $995,000 (by the CEO under his delegated authority) to assist the SkyPath in obtain resource and building consent.
This whole process appears to have been driven by council staff, and elected councillors appear to have been relatively starved of financial information, despite huge sums being spent or promised so far.

The SkyPath Trust is now urging the Council to give the go-ahead to the project now on the basis that there is no alternative crossing likely to be available for more than 20 years when the new Harbour Crossing will be built.

However latest advice from Government is that the next crossing is more likely to be started in as little as 9 years.

While claiming that SkyPath will reduce traffic congestion by shifting people from cars to bikes, no credible figures have been produced to show a forecast breakdown of users between tourists, leisure visitors and commuters.

Its seems that ratepayers are again having their money spent at the whim of a council which is not in control of its spending decisions.

ends

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Cyclists are the most important people on Earth

14/5/2016

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The magenta paint alone cost $300,000

Yesterday Auckland Councillors decided to raid the piggy bank in order to service the massive debt they had created through a series of unaffordable vanity projects that are a complete waste of money. These include purchasing a leaky building for its new headquarters, investing in a City Rail Link that will do nothing to alleviate traffic congestion, and wasting hundreds of millions on cycleways for the less than 1% who commute to work by bike. Councillors had other options like deferring the CRL until its original start date of 2020 or deferring cycle projects but decided instead to press on regardless with depressingly predictability.

If the city is drowning in debt it is also drowning in folly and follies. Nothing could illustrate this better than today’s picture accompanying this blog. It shows the infamous ‘magenta’ cycleway over Auckland’s Spaghetti Junction carrying zero cyclists high over the city’s congested motorways at rush hour. The magenta paint alone cost nearly $300,000. The additional rates burden of the Transport Levy, is being used almost exclusively to fund more of these follies to cater to the ‘special needs’ of cycle lobbyists.

This tongue in cheek post on the ‘Clickhole’ website expresses well the cyclists’ arguments for their greedy self interest.

Every day in this country, cyclists are treated like second-class citizens, barely tolerated by careless motorists and lazy pedestrians who refuse to share the streets. It’s time to confront reality and enact new traffic laws that reflect the inarguable truth: Cyclists are better than you in every way possible.

From cutting down on pollution, to lowering your commute time, the very existence of cyclists in your city is a blessing. Building protected bike lanes and bike boxes for turning is the least you can do. Anyone with a basic modicum of courtesy knows that cyclists should be allowed to do whatever we want, whenever we want—from riding on the sidewalks if the streets are crowded, to blocking the exits of subway cars during rush hour. Today’s laws need to address that.

If you press them hard enough, motorists and pedestrians will begrudgingly admit that they could do more to look out for cyclists. This is obvious. But they’ll often argue as a counterpoint that cyclists have a responsibility to wear helmets and obey stop signs and traffic signals.

Dead fucking wrong.

Cyclists shouldn’t have to obey your rules. Cyclists should make the rules. We’re done braking for your dogs and strollers while you’re promenading through a crosswalk. Forget new traffic laws—we’re above the law altogether. Parking lanes should be bike lanes. Sidewalks should be bike boulevards. Stoplights ought to be optional for anything on two wheels—or three, if you welded it yourself.

The time has come for all driver’s education courses, safety books, and road signs to reflect the reality that anyone on a bike—from fair-weather riders going 10 miles per hour in the left-hand turn lane, to entire families of tourists crowding the sidewalks—outranks you as a human being. We need laws forcing anyone who so much as sees a cyclist on the street to thank them for their very existence. If a cyclist wants to run down the mayor in broad daylight, you should get down on your hands and knees and kiss the skid marks.

If you don’t think cyclists are the most important people on Earth, prove it. Talk to one of us for five minutes, and tell us we’re wrong.

That’s what I thought.

These are the sorts of arguments cyclists have used to persuade Councillors to part with hundreds of millions of our money to pay for cyclists ‘special needs’. And Councillors have been persuaded, that’s the scary part.

You can see why Auckland is in so much trouble.

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Businesses to bear brunt of rates rises

9/5/2016

@NZ Herald

Auckland Council is gearing up to tell us the bad news about this year’s rates rises. Of course, it’s election year so Councillors, fearful for their jobs, will be doing their level best to keep the increase as low as possible. With this in mind they are already lashing out at groups who don’t have the power of the ballot box at their disposal.The first to feel the pinch will be businesses.

The ‘temporary’ transport levy – mark my words it will become permanent – is set to hit them hardest this year.

Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief's desperate attempt to stop 'unfair, badly timed' proposal

The Auckland Chamber of Council is urging council to vote against an "unfair, ad hoc and badly timed" proposal which would see businesses paying double towards a transport levy to give residents some relief.

Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett has made a desperate attempt to stop the move which he had labelled as purely political. He claimed the council is punishing businesses in order to collect votes from residents.
The chamber has written to the mayor and all councillors asking them to reconsider the proposal prior to making decisions on the annual plan on Friday. The public consultation period ended on 24 March 2016.

The three-year levy was introduced last year to fund an extra $186 million towards transport initiatives and in the first year saw residential rate payers footing $114 of the bill and business ratepayers paying $187.

But in the 2016/17 draft annual plan the council is proposing reducing the amount residents pay by 21 per cent to $90, while increasing what businesses pay by 54 per cent to $407 or be rated based on capital value.

The chamber said under the capital value proposal, a small to medium business would go from paying $187 to $3000, while a business with property valued at $184 million would pay $55,000 regardless of whether it operated commercial vehicles and therefore even benefits from the new transport improvements.

Mr Barnett said going ahead with the proposal would "reinforce a view that council is not fit for purpose".

"The option of a levy against business ratepayers based on property values is outrageous and lacking in logic... Just making the proposal is a giant leap backwards for a city and council that wants to attract business investment, employment and build a positive working relationship with the business community."

Michael Barnett is right but Auckland Council has too many Councillors who lack logic and have no idea about the cost of doing business in Auckland. Perhaps that is why Wellington is bragging that it, not Auckland, is the powerhouse of economic growth in the country following latest statistics showing Wellington is growing faster than Auckland. Imposing more taxes on Auckland businesses to pay for cycle lanes, which is what the transport levy is for, will only make business harder and stifle economic growth.

But when your own job is at risk you are prepared to make business a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter. The ‘Terrible Ten’ Councillors who voted for last years outrageous 9.9% rates rise know they will be targeted by the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance for their profligate spending, waste of money and massive rates rises. They will not be able to pull the wool over ratepayers' eyes simply by making businesses rather than ratepayers pay more.

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People power causes cycleway re-think

16/4/2016

Wellington residents in Island Bay have mounted a rearguard action against the unsafe Island Bay cycleway, one of Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown’s vanity projects (it extends from her home to her office). The ‘Get Rid of the Island Bay Cycleway’ campaign called ‘Paint it back’ has caused a growing backlash against the imposition of cycleways when they are clearly opposed by the majority of affected residents.

The campaign has been so successful it has made cycleways an election issue in this year’s forthcoming local body elections.The depth of public disquiet over the headlong rush to build cycleways, anywhere and at any price, has caused one cycling enthusiast, the Minister of Transport Simon Bridges, to sound a note of caution after meeting aspiring Mayoral candidate Jo Coughlin.

Transport Minister Simon Bridges said Wellington's cycleways had faced some of the loudest opposition in the country.

Mr Bridges said he was okay with the council slowing down to make sure the community did want the cycleways.

"What Jo's been impressing on me is the cycleways can't just be done in an ad-hoc, lackadaisical way," he said. "They've got to be done right ... properly.

"We've got to satisfy both ourselves, as government and council, but also the people of Wellington."

Councillor Paul Eagle said Mrs Coughlan's plan was good, but he would like to see the Island Bay route sorted out first.

He agreed the current cycleway plan felt like it had been forced through.
"I'll be frank about this, this has been a pet project of the mayor, Celia Wade-Brown, and the chair of the transport committee, Andy Foster," he said.

"They have really just rammed this through, I'm sick of it.

"Any mechanism from anyone that says we can bring this to a halt and sort out the Island Bay cycleway first, I'll be supporting."

Cycleways have sucked hundreds of millions from Council road maintenance budgets in the last few years as cycling became the latest yuppie fad. Cycleways are often unsafe and lack economic justification for their imposition.

Auckland Councillors should not underestimate the anger of residents around the city who have had their essential road maintenance budgets cut to pay for new cycleways that are little more than vanity projects for the yuppies in Generation Zero. The additional 3.4% so-called ‘Transport Levy’, set to become a perpetual Council tax on top of rates every year into the foreseeable future, is being used predominantly to build more cycleways. Yet cycleways are only adding to the traffic congestion in Auckland.

A good example of this waste of ratepayers’ money is ‘Skypath’, a multi-million dollar ‘private’ project that is underwritten by the ratepayer. Local residents in Northcote have protested the unsuitability of the route and the dangers to public safety should the project go ahead, but so far their warnings have fallen on deaf ears.

One Councillor has spoken out and, like Simon Bridges, is sounding a note of caution.

North Shore councillor George Wood says although SkyPath's capacity is not yet known, Auckland Council should take a conservative approach to entering into a commercial arrangement on the project.

"The whole economic viability of SkyPath revolves around the return that will be achieved from the tolls paid by users," he says.

"I will be strongly urging Auckland councillors to not make any rash decisions which could cost ratepayers a lot of money in the future."

While Wood is urging caution, gung ho, profligate, ‘Terrible Ten’ Councillor Chris Darby is saying throw caution to the wind because ratepayers can be relied on to pick up the bill when Skypath comes a cropper, as it most assuredly will if it goes ahead.

Darby should take note of the backlash by Wellington residents over ill-advised and costly cycleways that achieve nothing in terms of solving congestion problems but in fact add to them. Increasing rates by over 3% to rates every year to pay for them may yet prove more costly than Darby realises.

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Britomart bus stop moves enrage Waiheke commuters and residents

15/4/2016

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Waiheke and other commuters who use the Britomart Transport Hub, the biggest public transport interchange in the country, are just beginning to realise the negative impact of changes being made to the area under Auckland Council’s City Centre Masterplan.

Until now Waiheke and other commuters have been well served by the Britomart transport hub’s rail, ferry and bus connections. In particular the Hospital bus, Airport bus and City Link bus have been lifelines for Waiheke residents and all have been conveniently placed at the end of a long ferry commute.

All three services have been moved away from Britomart to make way for Mike Lee’s vision of Britomart and Quay Street as a playcentre for cyclists and walkers who want a coffee during lunch.

The revitalisation of Britomart by the old Auckland City Council has been a huge success, changing the area from a wasteland of dropouts, drunks and doss houses to a vibrant centre of city life. It defies belief that this success story should be trashed by Len Brown and his sidekick on the Auckland Transport Board, Councillor for Waiheke, Mike Lee. It’s almost as if Lee and Brown couldn’t bear to keep any reminder of the success of the old Auckland City Council. Forget the glossy brochures featuring latte drinking yoppies, removing commuters from Britomart will return the area to the bad old days. As businesses close and the lifeblood is being sucked from the city centre, the vagrants are already moving in.

From day one of the Supercity, a new plan for Britomart was in place. The first Waiheke Local Board fought in vain to retain the lifelines that Britomart provided for its residents. Missing in Action (MIA) was Mike Lee who frankly, has not achieved a single thing of any benefit for Waiheke residents in six years. Also MIA has been the second Waiheke Local Board members who have been so busy with plans to create a separate state of Waiheke that they have abrogated all responsibility for its residents whose life and work is intertwined with the city.

Contrast Mike Lee’s abysmal performance as Waiheke’s Councillor with the representation of Councillor George Wood who is fighting a last ditch battle to save the commuter connections at Britomart that have served his North Shore residents so well. Here is a video of George Wood outlining why moving bus services out of Britomart is a poor outcome for North Shore residents.

The local body elections are less than six months away. It is an opportunity to get rid of the deadwood that is Mike Lee and the current members of the Waiheke Local Board and replace them with Bill Ralston, in the case of Mike Lee, and just about anybody who has the courage to stand up to the bully boys and girls who back the current incumbents on the WLB.

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Skypath in trouble

31/3/2016

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Skypath, the proposed controversial clip-ons to Auckland Harbour Bridge for cyclists, remains embroiled in legal challenges and is yet to get NZTA (NZ Transport Authority) approval.

Three residents groups are opposing the plans on the grounds of safety, lack of technical data, and risk to the ratepayer should the scheme go ahead but fail to meet ambitious revenue targets. Meanwhile the cost to the ratepayer has already escalated to a whopping $322,000 for what is supposed to be a private enterprise.

The private developer has managed to pass on the expensive cost of ‘wind load testing’ to Council and therefore the ratepayer after Council granted resource consents for the project to go ahead without satisfying itself on the fundamental question of whether or not the bridge could sustain the anticipated load. If it cannot the project becomes unfeasible.

The community groups challenging the SkyPath plan in the Environment Court have reached their deadline to finalise their issues with the proposal.

Auckland Council has spent $321,296 investigating the plan to add bike and walking access to the Harbour Bridge even though the New Zealand Transport Agency has yet to decide whether the idea is technically sound.

Three community groups are taking the council and Woodward Infrastructure - the private company behind the $33 million SkyPath proposal - to the Environment Court to appeal against the resource consent granted eight months ago.

The appellants say there's a lack of technical research in the plans and object to the council's decision to grant consent without a verdict from the NZTA on whether it will approve a "licence to occupy" to let the concept go ahead.

By May 27, the council must also file a "comprehensive report", a document which must include the results of "wind load testing", after the court deemed the testing was needed to establish the feasibility of the proposal.

Herne Bay Residents Association co-chair Christine Cavanagh says her group is not opposed to the SkyPath but fears plans are being undermined by poor process and inadequate research.

"What concerns us is that the applicant [Woodward Infrastructure] and Auckland Council have not done their homework on a range of fundamental issues.
"For example, there's no adequate evidence yet available to establish that SkyPath can be attached to the Auckland Harbour Bridge without compromising the bridge's safety and function."

NZTA classifies SkyPath's status as an "investigation", and confirmed it is still some way off making a decision on whether to allow it to go ahead.

Around the country there is a growing backlash against the greedy demands of cyclists to have ratepayers pay for their recreational activities. The 4% rates transport levy paid by every Aucklander on top of their rates, taking the rates rise to 9.9%, was largely to fund new cycleways like Skypath. The Transport Levy is here to stay, yet less than 1% of commuters are cyclists.

Despite the expensive price tag there is no economic justification for cycleways. They are draining rates away from essential services and road maintenance in the rural areas of Auckland to pay for Green status symbols for the rich few Generation Zero activists who run Auckland Transport’s planning department.

The “Paint it Back’ Campaign to rid Wellington of the hazardous Island Bay Cycleway is growing into a nationwide movement against the imposition of the demands of the few over the needs of the many, driven by a discredited political philosophy.

All the glossy pictures of Skypath show pedestrians not cyclists. Yet is unlikely any pedestrians will use the path given that cyclists can reach speeds in excess of 70kph on the steep downhill slopes, and the space will be enclosed offering no escape.

Skypath is a rort. It deserves to be thrown out along with the Terrible Ten who voted for the Transport Levy and 10% rates rises.

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Board wants cycle lanes in Belgium Street

30/3/2016