Rebuilding clause

It seems to me, from your report yesterday, that Councillor East was correct in pointing out that council staff had omitted the rebuilding clause in the coastal district plan. As an arbiter, Peter Skelton has concluded that because the missing clause was only an alternative to be considered, the clause was not policy and thus the staff by not including it could not have been removing it. This is almost medieval logic. The fact remains that the clause was there for consideration but was not included. The staff in normal terms had indeed omitted it, but these days are not happy with being questioned.

John Burn, Merivale