Bureaucratic official wheels need to turn much faster

A supermarket should be built on Pioneer Highway. It will look good, and provide jobs.

The decision-making arm of the Palmerston North City Council lurches back into business on Monday, after what has been effectively its third month of holidays so far this year.

Just to clear up any doubt, the staff have been at work throughout.

But the councillors had January off. Then they had their traditional month off in July after all the extra effort of getting the annual plan sorted and the rates struck, and the best part of another six weeks off from meetings as a result of October’s elections.

They have got time to squeeze in one full round of the new cycle of committee meetings between now and Christmas and a sevenweek break. How the year disappears. The chances are the agendas for the rest of this year will be rather janine.rankin@fairfaxmedia.co.nz

full ones, given that staff are likely to have a backlog of reports and information to present.

Not least of them will be about the overhaul of the City Library and what is happening with the reclaimed Public Trust Office space.

The wheels of local democracy turn rather slowly.

For example, it took two and a half years for the council to come clean about knowing that the Ghost Tower sculpture should never have been left standing, unfinished, temporarily bolted together and unfenced in April 2014, when it was bowled by high winds putting the public in danger.

We could have forgiven and forgotten about that sorry incident by now if information sharing had been a bit more prompt. Or perhaps, if someone had stopped nagging about it, and we had never found out.

However, what this is all about is whether the new-look council might be able to move a bit more nimbly, like everyone else has to to survive in business these days, over the next three years.

There is a great deal on the agenda, and the list keeps getting longer as projects are delayed and budgets are carried forward.

So here’s a selection of the things we think they should actually get around to.

Some of the projects are underway. Some have been talked about for many years. Some have issues to be resolved that are beyond the council’s control, but hardly beyond their influence, if they mean business.

It is time for urban development at Whakarongo, where land has been re-zoned residential for two years and housing demand is supposed to be at an all-time high. Much of it is privately owned, but the council is a key land-holder and can surely give progress a nudge.

A supermarket should be built on Pioneer Highway. It will look good and provide jobs, and a more accessible shopping and community experience for a neglected part of the city. That decision is now in the hands of the Environment Court, so we can but hope.

The cycle and pedestrian bridge across the Manawatu River is a project the council is pursuing with uncharacteristic speed. But the final call on its success could end up being the Environment Court’s also, unless the neighbours are tamed.

The cycle and pedestrian pathway to Linton is almost certain to be completed, along with a bridge over the Turitea Stream. Good.

The pathway from Te Matai Rd to Raukawa Rd needs to be built, finally joining up the link from Maxwells Line all the way to Ashhurst.

The Wildbase Recovery Centre at the Esplanade was first supported by the council in 2012, and now fundraising has been successful, it is time for the stars to align on one of the coolest projects the city has seen in a long time.

At the other end of town, we can hope, with some confidence, that the Linklater Reserve will be further developed.

The council must finally decide what to do with the Papaioea flats.

This is a big one. This term of council must devise and agree on a comprehensive plan for wastewater management that involves getting our treated sewage out of the Manawatu River. Sooner rather than later, no playing for time.

Decisions need to be made, one way or the other, about whether the Pioneer City West urban development proposal will ever go ahead.

It is time to provide some certainty about where the city is going to grow next. We need a local alcohol policy. People need to stop complaining about Broadway going backwards and do something about it themselves to complement the council’s proposed streetscape improvements.

A decision needs to be made, openly and including the public in the plan, about where the city’s next road bridge should be.

There needs to be a roundabout at the corner of State Highway 3/Napier Rd and Roberts Line. The council needs to lobby like it means it.

And for the kids – the ducks are all lined up for the Junior Road Safety Park at Victoria Esplanade to go ahead before its original advocates’ children leave school.