Press release 26 06 2019
Save Chamberlain Park (SCP) is calling on the Chief Executive of Auckland City Council, Stephen Town, to withdraw an error-ridden and misleading report promoting the redevelopment of Chamberlain Park.
Save Chamberlain Park said: “We believe the report is so substandard that it would be unlawful for the Albert Eden Local Board to endorse its recommendations at its upcoming meeting on 26 of June.
“This is not an insubstantial project both in terms of scale and cost. Endorsing the report would permit the expenditure of nearly $1m of rate payer funds on a business case and resource consent application, to then in turn justify the expenditure of $29.7 million (including $16.2m on two sports fields) on the redevelopment. “We note that this is up some 35% on the previous Council estimate for the same plans – which in and of itself raises serious doubts about the analysis. It also must be seen in the light of the Chairman of the Albert Eden Local Board continuing to down play the cost of the project – rejecting claims by SCP that costs are likely to be much higher.
“It is cavalier and unacceptable for Council to write a report with the obvious intention of promoting its pet project and in doing so use spurious and poor quality analysis. How can the public have faith in a Council that does this, particularly when there is substantial opposition to it – one measure of this opposition is that we now have more than 17,500 signatures on our petition.
“This latest effort also comes after the Council earlier this year was forced to withdraw a Resource Consent that it granted itself for works at Chamberlain Park because it too had flaws in process and fact.”
View our letter sent to Mr Town on our website http://www.savecpark.org/news-1
Save Chamberlain Park Inc looks forward to the upcoming Local Body elections where it can publicly challenge those elected members propagating such wasteful rate payer expenditure.
View the flawed report -Item 13 http://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2019/06/AE_20190626_AGN_8179_AT.PDF
Geoff Senescall
Chair of Save Chamberlain Park
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