Park land to stay open to everyone

By BERNARD ORSMAN

A controversial Mt Eden sports club project has been dropped four months before the local body elections.

Auckland Citizens & Ratepayers Now members have voted to abandon plans to move the private Eden Epsom Tennis and Squash Club onto a council reserve, following local pressure to keep parks in the densely-populated Eden-Albert ward for public use.

Some residents were not impressed when local Auckland C & R Now councillor Greg McKeown, who is a member of the club, earlier voted on the project on the basis of a legal opinion stating he could participate in the project until the council adopted a final position.

Mr McKeown and a second Auckland C & R Now councillor, Mark Donnelly, hold their ward seats by the slim margins of 378 and 88 votes respectively.

The centre-left City Vision is targeting the three Eden-Albert seats after patching up a split with the Green Party that cost it a seat at the 2001 local body elections.

A clean sweep in October would help City Vision gain a majority on the council.

The decision to abandon moving the sports club onto public space was made by a joint meeting of the Eden-Albert and Hobson community boards.

It followed another round of consultation with 3200 local residents. Of the 393 responses, more than half did not want the club to move to Nicholson or Windmill Parks. One in three favoured the club moving to one of the parks.

The board voted to continue developing Nicholson, Windmill and Melville Parks into a recreation hub over 10 years, including open space areas at the Auckland College of Education, Auckland Normal Intermediate School and Kohia Terrace Primary School.