Council refuses to back out of deal

The demolition of the school is opposed by many parents and neighbours. Photo / Martin Sykes

The Auckland Council has rejected a plea to back off from buying the Monte Cecilia School in Hillsborough - despite the Friends of Monte dropping a bombshell legal opinion on the status of the deal with the Roman Catholic Church.

Councillor Cathy Casey yesterday asked the council governing body to cancel the former Auckland City Council's decision to acquire the school's land for park and relocate it 3km away.

She hoped the new Auckland Council might not want at least a further $30 million spent on expanding the public park around the restored Pah Homestead, now an art gallery.

Dr Casey said there was much community discontent about the former council's "rushing" through the land deal with the church before the 2009 election.

Fast tracking had it approved by the unelected agency officials handling the councils' merger, instead of coming under political scrutiny of the new Auckland Council from November 1.

"Ratepayers are paying to remove and rebuild a school with the single benefit of either a breathing space on one back corner of the Pah Homestead for the TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre, or a driveway, carparking and more event space.

"This is just not good enough. As authorisers of multimillion-dollar deals, councillors did not have the correct depth and breadth of information at hand to make the best choice."

She called on Mayor Len Brown to bring all interested parties together and mediate a positive result about relocation of the Monte Cecilia School.

Yesterday's debate was fuelled by a deputation of the Friends of Monte.

Representatives Anne Nicholson and Peter Gibson said most of the school's parents and neighbouring residents opposed the school's demolition and relocation and a petition had been signed by 2440.

They complained of grossly inadequate consultation and poor process, and said an alternative - repositioning the school in the park west of the homestead - was more acceptable and cheaper.

They said the council was free to explore this option because of a legal opinion obtained by the Friends from prominent local government lawyer David Kirkpatrick.

He looked at the legality of the council agreement under the Public Works Act to acquire the school from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, Patrick Dunn, as proprietor of the school.

Mr Kirkpatrick said that both a November 2009 Memorandum of Understanding and the May 2010 Public Works Act agreement were void. This was because they were not confirmed by the Auckland Transition Agency, as was required by law and conditions in both documents.

His advice that the agreements did not exist was contrary to that given by council general counsel Wendy Brandon.

She said if the council were to revoke the agreements, it risked being sued by the diocese for compensation for damages.

Mr Brown said he had tried to talk all parties round but positions were "intractable".

The church's leadership was determined to proceed with their decision to relocate Monte Cecilia School on the site of the St John Vianney Church.

"Your request that I bring the stakeholders together ... it may be a bridge too far."

A way to move forward, he said, was to try to test the law by breaking the contracts.

"I do not want to see our council in the situation where it is in breach of its own obligations, where it is in danger of not respecting its processes and where we are putting ourselves in a position as one of the parties that would be perilous."

Dr Casey refused to withdraw her notice of motion which had seven councillors' signatures. It was voted down 4-15, after much debate, including impassioned speeches by Noelene Raffills, Christine Fletcher, Richard Northey and Mike Lee.