Hearing input not welcome

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

The open correspondence (TGH 22 Jan) between GDC and me continues. I will not be gagged. This unhelpful advice to me by email came Friday, January 29: “Given the late receipt of your submission at Council Offices which was made well outside the submission period by some 4½ months, I cannot accept this submission for consideration.”

“The other matters you raise in relation to logging trucks within the road network is not work undertaken by my ‘section' of Council and I will not be engaging with you in that matter.”

What happened to the planning rule that advice to one “section” of a council was advice to all sections?

By the way readers, I was only suggesting a payment to the Environmental Protection Society for every day, past the end of this council triennium, that the 60 tonne HPMV continue to unnecessarily damage urban roads. Councillors have already made that promise . . . it's just the timing I would like firmed up.

And this gem; “As the Consent Manager of Council's regulatory section, I have a duty to avoid unreasonable delay and observe the principle of natural justice . . .”

So, given the port is now negotiating an agreement with iwi, and given the application has been “on hold” until the port gets that agreement, I would have expected a public-spirited Council to encourage and welcome more ratepayer input. Especially, as I have already said in these columns the port is not just renewing the amount of dredging and dumping — it is extending.

Time, I believe, for GDC staff to stop implicitly supporting port proposals. Time the experts and our councillors started talking about the vastly cheaper rail to Napier option, as often exhorted by May Ruby in these columns. Time too for GDC councillors to take a closer interest in the planning decisions affecting the entire region's future, currently taken by staff under delegated authority.

I have asked the staff to be more specific about the reasoning behind their determination to keep me away from a councillor Hearing Committee. In the meantime it's time, I think, to ask the Environment Court for help.

Winston Moreton