The council needs a system for dealing with road closures.
The council needs a system for dealing with road closures.
Those Hundertwasser activists gloom over perceived loss of tourism income can cheer up. A tourism boom is on the way.
Local body politicians from around the world will be flooding in to learn how to behave at public meetings - how to do polemics with politeness, with respect for others,with calm reasoning and allowing others to have their say without interruption.
Most of all, they will want to see how to do the put-down and riposte delivered with Churchillian wit and sophistication and charm. Cr Bell was especially adept in this regard. How will the motels cope? Hot on their heels will be traffic authorities from all first-world countries eager to absorb the techniques of dealing with highway closures with maximum efficiency, speed, and consideration for the motoring public.
The genius of the local plan was to get members of the public to perform some of their duties for them. On a recent Friday afternoon, south-bound motorists who had taken almost an hour to travel a kilometre or two were hugely relieved to finally reach the State Highway One and Maunu Rd intersection.
With nobody there to tell them otherwise, they hurried through only to find they could go no further than Rewarewa Rd. There it was left to other motorists to advise that the highway was closed and that one had to go back through town and rejoin the Maunu Rd traffic lights and head to Maungatapere.
It took another hour of stop-start travel before rejoining the highway. There was nobody on point duty, but, thankfully, the south-bound motorists who had now been let through were extremely courteous and considerate in making it easy to get onto the highway. Then, within the space of 15 kilometres, two police officers, probably about eight kms apart, had stopped motorists, presumably for speeding.
Some may have thought it reasonable that they could, instead, have helped out in easing the congestion but, hey, here were money-making opportunities.
Much good can come of this. The council can go to the traffic authorities to learn how to meet budget targets. In turn, the council would no doubt be delighted to volunteer a few staff to help for a couple of hours when next there is bewilderment about how to deal with highway closures.
