Brian Rudman: Does Vulcan Lane really need to sing the blues?

What a relief. Now that the fashionistas are questioning the need for the $1.2 million revamp of Vulcan Lane, I can stop biting my tongue and echo their chorus of "why?"

Back in March when the lane's upgrade brochure first came out, I was rather diverted by the city council's zany plans to install five high-tech "fully automated" and "self-flushing" tui feeders as the centrepiece of the redesign.

As a result, the proposal to rip up the scoria red paving slabs and replace them with the gloomy bluestone of neighbouring High St rather escaped my attention. But not that of resident fashion businessmen such as Neville Findlay of Zambesi, Chris Cherry of Workshop and Andrew Bishop of Feline.

They asked in March, and have now gone public, asking why the need for change? And if there is one, why use the "bland, homogeneous" bluestone that council officers are currently fixated on.

These guys are tossing the council's new-found love of heritage back in the bureaucrats' faces and saying, what's wrong with the place as it is? They want the "lovely, old-fashioned shopping lane" to stay unchanged.

"The continual dicking around and modernising things that in three years look terribly dated is ridiculous," says Mr Findlay.

Mr Bishop also warns that in small spaces, the bluestone is "dreary and grim", pointing to nearby Durham Lane, which got the bluestone treatment, as the black hole of Calcutta on a winter's day.

The experts' report to the council attempted a more positive spin: "The gunmetal colour of the paving and furnishings will provide a neutral setting for life in the lane, with the colour coming from the people, shops, cafes and bars."

Mr Bishop confesses it was local businessmen, himself included, who proposed High St's makeover in bluestone paving a few years back, and that now it has turned round to "bite us in the bum".

They'd come up with the paving slab solution as a way round the endless resurfacing of the old bitumen paving after each repair to underground pipes and cables.

He still believes the bluestone is a success in High St, but that doesn't mean the whole inner-city should be carpeted in the same dark material.

"It's going to look really boring, like decorating your whole place in white. It'll be very stark and bleak."

He prefers the traditional look the lane has. For those of us who can remember, the malling of Vulcan Lane in 1968 to achieve its present look was also met with anguished cries from traditionalists who liked to stagger out of the Queens Ferry or Occidental pubs straight into a car.

But like the present doubters, I rather like the present ambience of the place and query the need for a makeover for modernity's sake. And with this council's sorry track record for getting public spaces wrong, I'm surprised officials and politicians aren't leaping at any advice offered. Especially from those whose business is design.

Of course, Vulcan Lane is just the start. After that comes the whole of Queen St - $30 million worth of bluestone and other titivations. What a lot of money - and bluestone - to throw away, if the result is going to be, as these critics predict, stark and bleak and really boring.

So why did they leave it so late to complain? Well, they didn't. It's just that their criticism was ignored during the hearing process, and the councillors, as so often, just rubber-stamped the plans through.

But in the new spirit of conservation and consultation would it be so hard to think again? Where's the much-heralded design panel when you need it?

I've bleated on in the past about how wayward Queen St pavers squirt water up your trouser legs. But I didn't expect them to be ripped up en masse. A bit of quick-dry concrete was all that was needed.

The reddy-brown of the existing Vulcan Lane and Queen St paving has a warmth lacking in the High St bluestone. The scoria colouring also links in with Auckland's heritage as a city of volcanoes.

My question is simple: Do we need this makeover?