‘Unsightly, third world’ Queen St: legal letter
Building owners pull no punches in scathing missive to mayor Goff
The works are ugly and said by some retailers to be a disgrace.
Letter from Auckland barrister Derek Nolan QC
A legal letter from a QC sent to Auckland mayor Phil Goff on behalf of Queen St businesses has called for immediate removal of “unsightly and third world changes” to the streetscape in the name of a pedestrian trial.
In the June 18 letter, Auckland barrister Derek Nolan QC made a scathing list of criticisms of aesthetic and legal issues with the Covid-19 barriers.
The plastic pylons were dug into the asphalt along the largest shopping strip in the country during the pandemic but have remained for the $2 million Access for Everyone (A4E) pedestrian trial. They have reduced Queen St to one lane each way indefinitely and many barriers lie broken on the road as the council swaps them with concrete blocks.
Anne Mazer has owned clothing stores Great Kiwi Yarns and the Country Collection on downtown Queen St since 2017.
Mazer, who moved to New Zealand from France 11 years ago, said a major Paris street would never be reduced to a plastic minefield.
“We don’t understand these yellow plastic cones, barriers. When you think of Champs-Elysees, you think Paris, Eiffel Tower, but you don’t think yellow plastic cones,” Mazer said.
“This would never happen for the major streets of the country. It’s the same thing for Broadway in New York.”
The building owners who employed Nolan to serve the legal letter pulled no punches in their comments and formally asked the council to remove the barriers and “restore Queen St”.
“They and many other building owners and retailers are appalled at what they describe as unsightly and ‘third world’ changes made to Queen St by Auckland Transport during Covid-19, without consultation and which AT has since failed to remove,” Nolan wrote to Goff.
The works have “drastically reduced the amenity and safety on
Queen Street” the letter points out.
“The works are ugly and said by some retailers to be a disgrace; the new ‘footpaths’ are not used by pedestrians; they are a trip hazard as they are at a lower level than the formed footpaths; buses now completely block all traffic,” the letter says.
The letter also accuses Auckland Transport (AT) of breaching Item 82 of the Local Government Act 2002, which details the “principles of consultation” and AT’s failure to allow “persons who will or may be affected by” a decision to offer their views.
The Queen St business owners behind the QC’s letter claim “all this has worsened an already poor economic situation for many retailers”.
Nolan said he has received no response at all from the mayor's office to the letter.
The Weekend Herald spoke to a handful of other Queen St businesses this week who all said the Covid barriers, and the pedestrian trial broadly, were making things difficult as they tried to get back on their feet in the post-lockdown environment.
Heart of the City surveyed Queen St outlets late last month and found 79 per cent wanted the barriers gone.
Goff’s office said he could not directly respond to the specific points of the letter this week while “in the middle of key deliberations” finalising Auckland Council’s Covid19 emergency budget.
However, legal notices and letters served to the mayor are referred to the legal department for response.
Auckland Council chief of strategy Megan Tyler said the temporary Covid-19 works on the northern end of Queen St were being improved in response to feedback from businesses and residents.
“This includes replacing a portion of the plastic sticks between Shortland St and Customs St with pre-cast traffic islands, and painting extended pedestrian areas to make the purpose of the spaces clearer for users.”
Poor weather this week held up the process.
The Queen Street Valley A4E pilot was planned to be under way by March next year.
But Tyler said the emergency Covid-19 infrastructure installed on Queen St to enable physical distancing was an opportunity to bring the pilot forward.
But the building owners who employed Nolan, and the four other businesses spoken to by the Weekend Herald, were perhaps most annoyed by what they say was a complete lack of consultation with them by the council or AT to keep the barriers in place.
They stressed they were not opposed to a more pedestrianfriendly Queen St, but had not been consulted about keeping the Covid-19 barriers, which they said made the street ugly and confusing.
“We just want to be consulted and know their vision,” Mazer said.
“What is the project because we actually have no idea.
“It’s really simple from the retailers in Queen St. We just want people to enjoy it. It has to be the most beautiful street of Auckland and we just want the renovation that needs to be done and we understand that.”
Hallenstein Glasson Holdings general manager Mary Devine said they had resorted to corresponding with Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck to just “have a conversation” indirectly with AT and the council.
“Obviously after lockdown retailers getting back on their feet in inner city Queen St has been challenging because there’s been a lack of general foot traffic, lack of workers and foot traffic, students and so forth,” Devine said.
“With those balustrades remaining it’s just not necessarily a pleasant environment, and conducive for people coming into Queen St.”
The mayor’s office said Goff has met Beck twice since late May to discuss Queen St. Two other Auckland councillors have reportedly met Beck also, and council staff have offered to discuss the proposed changes, but received no response from Heart of the City.
However Beck maintained Heart of the City was allowed no input into the co-design process for the look of the pedestrian trial, nor the decision to keep the barriers after lockdown.