puff 306 Wheeler's Corner

Wheeler’s CornerÓ

Connecting Citizens Who Care

06 15th February 2007.

This Week: 1. Might over Right. 2. Honesty best Policy [Hokowhitu Ward]. 3. Awapuni Ward meets. 4. Action Group Meeting. 5. My God

Editorial:

It is difficult to understand the inner workings of the council. Firstly the council feels that it is equable the pay each councillor the same regardless of their attendance at promised committee meetings. One councillor last year attended only half the number of meetings as another! Yet received the same payment. Would you allow staff to come to work when they felt like it and still receive full pay? Cr. Naylor feels that this is OK and that is understandable because his attendance record is anything but flash. Continuation of the present money for jam policy and self awarded extra eight hundred-dollar boost to salaries clearly shows just where some councillors thoughts rest, their pockets. Cr. Claridge, Ian Cruden and Etheridge voted against the present system, Cr. Kelly wasn’t present and Cr. Findlay arrived late and didn’t vote. How many of those councillors who voted for the present system would be councillors unless they were being paid? Did you know that the report on this vital issue [written by the Council Legal Adviser Mr. John Annabell] said the citizens had not been consulted! So that means that you who pay their wages via your ever rising rate demand must simply pay and stay quiet. Have a think about it when you duck in to pay next months rates installment…

1. Might over Right:

The PNCC Road Planning team obviously did not include either the Kindergarten or Motor Camp in the number of residents in Dittmer Drive, as their quoted number of residents 64 should be 66. Why are Ray Swadel and some PNC Councillors confused? Road Planning wrote the Transport Management Plan and Transport Management Guidelines and Councillors voted for and approved PNCC Policy. If Councillors refer to the Works Operations Committee Report Part I of 22 July 2003, in it’s a detailed report headed Local Area Traffic Management. Listed are 54 streets in Palmerston North that requested traffic calming devices; the process is carefully explained. After an initial and technical assessment of each street, only 11 streets fitted the criteria and were then ranked in order of priority. As only a few streets have traffic calming devices, did the other streets not have 75% support for traffic calming devices? The Streets were:

Rangiora Avenue
North Street
Limbrick Street
Seddon Street
Centennial Drive
Argyle Avenue
Acacia Street
Dittmer Drive
Marne Street
Andrew Avenue
Wikiriwhi Crescent
Of these streets only Rangiora Avenue (hump and one chicane with no parking restrictions unlike the heavy no parking areas in Dittmer Drive), North Street (humps), and Andrew Avenue (3 humps) as well as Dittmer Drive have traffic calming devices. Wikiriwhi Crescent has one hump almost at the intersection with Dittmer Drive so I am not sure if the PNCC traffic engineers decided: that one hump at the end of the street was all that Wikiriwhi Crescent needed for traffic calming. Or whether it was installed anyway even though 75% of residents did not support them.

The 5 roads ranked before Dittmer Drive do not have traffic calming devices so one presumes that 75% or residents did not support traffic calming devices. All the more reason for cross checking the replies to the Dittmer Drive survey when Road Planning supposedly needed 75% resident support for traffic calming devices to be constructed.

Why on earth did Road Planning opt for chicanes when they had limited funds for traffic calming devices? Chicanes cost 3 or 4 times as much as a speed hump. More humps could have been built in other streets had the cheaper but more reliable traffic calming used in Dittmer Drive. Dittmer Drive residents said no to traffic calming devices. Dittmer Drive residents said they wanted the chicanes removed in August 2006. Dittmer Drive residents said they wanted the chicanes removed in November 2006. What part of no (to chicanes) doesn’t the Road Planning team and some councillors understand? Dittmer Drive residents will continue to deal with facts and not personal attacks. Regards Val Wilkinson.

Thanks Val, at the Hokowhitu Ward meeting on Thursday the residents of Churchill Avenue made an appeal to council to install calming devices in their street. They had presented a petition signed by eighty-five percent of the then resident’s three years ago on this very issue. While Cr. Gordon Cruden and Naylor back peddled neither informed the meeting that funding for traffic calming was over spent and that according to Ray Swadel no funds were available. Both were at the meeting on Monday night and both had a loss of memory by Thursday…strange that…Cr. Naylor and Gordon Cruden have a lot of work to do before the next election.

2. Honesty is best Policy.

It was interesting to attend the Hokowhitu Ward meeting and notice the behaviour of the Councillors present [Cr. Gordon Cruden and Naylor] once they became aware of the presence of the media. Unlike a meeting late last year when both the councillors stated that they had no time for the Ward Committee, whom they considered was unrepresentative even though they were being paid to attend. Suddenly they both became fully interested and it appeared a whole new spirit of participation and caring had been injected because of the welcomed presence of the Manawatu Standard reporter and photographer. They listened and appeared to agree with citizens from Churchill Avenue over their request for traffic calming. But the two councillors most certainly failed to inform those concerned that only two days before they were told that there was no money available for traffic calming devices. This lack of openness clearly leads to the mistrust often felt by citizens and makes the efforts of Ward Committees to represent their citizens fully hugely difficult in real terms. It is often asked where does the disruptive nature of council come? It is from behaviour such as this that it rears its ugly head. The constant critical and negative comments from Cr. Gordon Cruden, Naylor and Wall regarding anything said by the Mayor has become a barrier to working toward solutions.

3. Awapuni Meets:

Even though 39 people were present, only 28 were residents of Awapuni so the expected election for a new ward Committee member couldn’t take place. Horizons Regional Staff explained the future plans regarding flood protection and how it may effect the residents of Dittmer Drive, Buick Crescent and Awapuni in general. One ironic point came to the notice of Dittmer Drive residents and that was that the Chicanes might have to be moved to allow work to be carried out on the stop-banks. This information brought a laugh or two from those attending. The other bit of ironic information was the fact that the steep gravel path from Buick Crescent to the park, which was changed because the CEO complained that the old gentle-slopping path behind his property for some reason bothered him, was fenced off at council expense. It only took a few weeks to make the alterations then, but after agreeing to change it back again it has now taken two years to get some action. The CEO sold the property just after the changes were made. It looks as if this work will only be done after he has departed the city… The Ward Committee was please to hear the LG Commissions findings regarding the election process [Wards rather than City wide] and notes the expectation that Ward Committees will continue. My view is that if the tight eight council members are re-elected this expectation could be ignored.

4.

The next meeting of the Citizen's Action Group will be on Tuesday at 7.30pm on the 20th of February 2007. At Te Whare Akonga-Open Learning Centre in the McDonald's building in the Square. [Plaza side, next to taxi stand].

5. My God:

Wishes that you all tune into Access Triple Nine AM on Thursday at 11.45am and listen to her wayward son ‘chat’ to Val Wilkinson who is a real neat person and citizen.

Peter J Wheeler

Wheeler@inspire.net.nz








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