Mayor welcomes more work on V8 concerns

By BERNARD ORSMAN


North Shore Mayor George Wood is cautiously welcoming more detailed work on the proposed V8 supercar race but says his council remains opposed to the event.

Mr Wood and Auckland City Mayor John Banks met this week with senior staff from both councils to patch up their differences, which reached a low with Mr Banks' "pathetic" comment about Mr Wood's performance at a resource consent hearing last month.

Work is taking place behind the scenes between Transit, Auckland City and, to a lesser extent, North Shore on a detailed traffic management plan and other information requested by three independent planning commissioners hearing the resource consent to hold the race round Victoria Park in central Auckland.

Mr Banks has had a change of heart about doing more work to obtain consent. Last month, he said it would be "lunacy".

An announcement that the work would not be made public until October 12 has raised concern among race critics, including the Western Bays Community Board, who believe the sensitive issue has been put on hold until after the local body elections on October 9. The hearings will reconvene in November.

Scott Milne, the Auckland City councillor leading the bid to hold the race for seven years from 2006, said it was rubbish to suggest details were being held back.

He said resource consents costs would be about $300,000 each for the council and global sport marketing company IMG. The council would be reimbursed if the event went ahead.

Mr Banks and Mr Wood described this week's meeting as "good" and building on a memorandum of understanding between Auckland City and Transit two weeks ago to work to resolve traffic concerns.

Mr Wood said his council would consider any new information but in the meantime was still opposed to the event.