Auckland Plan Heritage Polices

Sally Hughes of the Save our St Heliers is right to hold the Mayor to task on heritage.He does talk heritage but fails to walk his talk. The Brisbane city heritage rules are workable in Auckland too. City planners must be held to account by the Mayor. He does have a moral authority and for the sake of our city he should use the full force of this to protect Residential One housing stock.
 Correspondents to the Herald, Dave Miller, Margret McRae and Gordon Nelson have every right to be disappointed and cynical about the planning process. The actions of cavalier planners place at risk our heritage and communities as well as income that our city derives from tourists who walk, spend and enjoy the beautiful and colourful suburbs.

 To have lax rules and let planners play fast and loose with them will not sustain or increase the wealth of our  beautiful city. What they do is reduce the physical history  of our nation.

58 Hakanoa Street Grey Lynn

Shale Chambers of the Waitemata Board is right. The integrity of the
Auckland Council’s resource consent system is in question. A week after the
Campbell Free Kindergarten open day, Mayor Brown celebrated the retention
of Heritage, our built heritage and our social heritage he said. Clearly
the emperor has no clothes.

 Mr Chambers comment in referring to the resource consent decision allowing
the removal of the house at 58 Hakanoa Street  indicates that “senior
council officer actively worked to subvert the very process that is now to
be encouraged” is concerning

The frustration for electors and for our elected representatives when it
comes to the rules about heritage and being actively undermined should not
be tolerated. When will these officers understand that they are the
servants of the community?

In researching the number of resource consent applications for residential
one housing it has been found  in excess of ninety five percent wish to
restore and renovate their villas.

Mr Birt and Ms Muxlow appear to be very creative but like us all, they
should obey the rules.

Roddy Doyle at Auckland Readers and Writers Festival

Friday night with Brian Edwards’s holding fort was a fine night. Edwards is hardly humble but Doyle was. Anyone who loves the Commitments would have been at ease with this conversation.

Originally the Commitments was called the Partitions and he referred to the partition of Ireland when the country was split in two in 1921 give or take a year or two. The ramifications of this Ireland still have to deal with today.

In 1994 when he won the Booker Prize, the barman at his local who had strong Republican sympathies said to him, ‘You went there ,You won their prize and you taken their fucken money ‘.

A sweet revenge for 1916

The highlight was Doyle reading his short story Animals from his collection of short stories Bullfighting. If you have a family, kids and pets we can all not only enjoy the story but relate to it too. Edwards could especially with the story of the guinea pig .

There were only two questions, one about The Women Who Walked into Doors and this is perhaps Doyle’s most serious told with a wonderful Irish humour. Doyle tells us after he had written this book ,he gave copies to the to the women’s refuge.

When he turned up to meet the women he felt an awkward silence until the woman who was running the centre asked for comment. A woman looked up and asked him, “ How did you get into my fucken head?”

Doyle’s reply was full of humanity and understanding of the human condition .Perhaps that’s why many of us enjoy his books.

Marko The Krangahape Rd Cleaner

The New  Zealand Herald Thursday May 3 featured a stoney and photo on Marko .

On Monday  7 May in  an abridged form they published this letter 

Inner city streets are a nightmares at various times of the day for residents let alone the people who do the often under appreciated, dirty jobs as Marko does. People like him keep our city liveable and help keep  us safe. He is one our ambassadors, with his guiding services to lost visors .He is also the eyes of the city for lost children or folk in difficulty. Small businesses would not be viable if Marko was not there too clean their stretch of footpath before they opened in the morning.
Fire fighters, nurses,police, bus drivers  and emergency service jobs are of course important and at times undervalued and unappreciated. However, we do know they are there with us.

The people like Marko  who provide  essential services, the dirtiest and unfashionable with minimal status  that keep our city moving, from underground workers who maintain sewage and drainage are seldom recognized.  We should value them  more. Without them out city would not be such an enjoyable place. .