Soho Quarter a reply to comments by Phil O Reilly

Letter published in the New Zealand Herald 30 December 2011 Phil been a long term Ponsonby resident and I salute his contribution to Ponsonby and Auckland. Ponsonby would be poorer without him. However, his outlandish comments about Soho Quarter cannot go unanswered. Not all Ponsonby residents were shown plans. There were so many plan changes. Every time the developer was granted consent he tried to push the envelope. This developer also refused to take into account the effect his plans would have on local residents concerned about traffic flow into their streets. They held genuine concerns about their health and safety. The development plans were not the Chancery by any means . At first there were going to be theatres ,then there were apartments, but at the end it was a huge block of retail shops and offices right on a residential street. The only thing we were told was that there were also going to be flying saucers. Phil is ungenerous or out of touch with his Ponsonby neighbours with his statement that it was never going to, prevail because of affronted and old core of Ponsonby fossils. On the contrary, a contemporary development would have worked for all and would have been applauded People are not stupid, when they are being sold rubbish they know it.