Inside out, upside down, and basically incomprehensible; comparable perhaps to going down the rabbit hole with Alice………….
A fair description of TCDC’s proposed Esplanade Project?
Absolutely fascinating how 12million+ of our hard-earned ratepayer dollars has been applied to a project that was apparently identified in 2021-2031 LTP, now has a budget in 2024 but yet to be planned, modelled, publicly notified, and accepted. How do you cost a project that has no plans?
In TCDC newsletter, Friday 12 March 2024, it says “an initial focus group session was held with the project’s advisory group of elected members, iwi representatives and community members and a wide range of local waterfront users in late March to listen to their needs and aspirations in the early stages of planning and design.” This is post-submissions, which makes the validity of the submission process a joke. That same newsletter states, “The project … needed to address health and safety issues and overuse conditions.” As pointed out in last weeks The Informer – safety issues on the wharf are covered in the $1.423 million Whitianga Wharf safety and operational improvements. This is all deeply concerning. The decision was made long before the cyclones and storms of early 2023, but where is the plan to be shared with the people who will pay for it?
Our dollars are not lollies
To be scattered on the ground
And gathered up for follies
That our councillors have found.
Things that take their fancy
But are financially unsound.
Should be consigned to “rubbish”
And a more urgent project found.
I may not ever be a poet
But with numbers I am sound.
