By BERNARD ORSMAN
Longserving Auckland City councillor Juliet Yates has been dumped from the Auckland Citizens & Ratepayers Now ticket and will stand down at October's local body elections.
Mrs Yates, a councillor since 1983, failed to get one of two nominations in the Auckland C&R Now stronghold of eastern bays at a selection meeting attended by 220 members.
Eastern Bays Community Board chairwoman Toni Millar and sitting councillor Doug Armstrong were selected ahead of Mrs Yates and former councillor Colin Davis.
As chairwoman of planning for the past six years, Mrs Yates has faced criticism for doing too little, too late to control intensive housing developments and pushing through controversial buildings, such as the PricewaterhouseCoopers tower on the waterfront, without giving the public a say.
Mrs Yates said she had been at the forefront of controversial planning issues but had overseen many achievements.
These included an urban design panel to review central city developments, a new mixed zone with strict design criteria and bylaws to control brothels and offensive signs.
Meanwhile, Team Auckland councillor Victoria Carter is keeping everyone guessing about her political future ahead of tonight's Auckland C&R Now selection in Hobson.
Sources said Mrs Carter had been approached by Auckland C&R Now about standing in Hobson to bolster Mayor John Banks' majority.
Mrs Carter stood on the Act-aligned Auckland Now ticket in 1998 but was dropped when Auckland Now joined forces with Citizens & Ratepayers in 2001.
The executive officer of the Stop the Eastern Motorway lobby group, Richard Lewis, said Hobson voters would be furious if Mrs Carter, a highway opponent, got captured by the Auckland C&R Now camp and became a pro-roader.
Herald Feature: Local Vote 2004
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Citizens & Ratepayers Now drops council veteran
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