Mosgiel subdivision numbers please
WHAT a brilliant answer by David BensonPope (Letters, 19.5.22) in today’s publication regarding the proposed subdivision of high quality Taieri Plain’s soil in reply to a letter the previous day.
Well I mean brilliantly disingenuous in that his quote ‘‘everyone therefore pays comparatively less’’ does not tell the complete story.
If, as was stated in the editorial of May 16, about 500 lots could be established on the site.
That’s 500 individual ratepayers compared to the present one (1) ratepayer.
If one does a quick check of the council public record of the Ayr St property you will get an idea of the current rates levy.
Now if the council charges, say, an average rate of $3000 per lot, (probably a very light figure) multiplied by the 500 lots, that equates to an annual rates take of $1.5 million, which one could quite easily deduce would be an excessive amount for the present ratepayer to be paying, so David BensonPope is correct in his quote.
If that’s typical of the thinking of our present councillors, it’s no wonder the ratepayers are right to be sceptical of the management of the city.
How difficult is it to actually tell things as they are and not obfuscate.
Could David BensonPope please supply the comparative figures for all to see.
Concord
Guidance ‘not’ ignored
I BELIEVE your article headlined ‘‘Guidance ignored — ORC report’’ (ODT, 19.5.22) is a tad unfair.
Councillors promised Minister Parker that we would notify a Land and Water Plan (LWP) by the end of next year.
We received and took staff guidance around notifying the regional policy statement (RPS) as a freshwater instrument. This is a step on the way to the LWP.
The RPS is now in the throes of a major court process with various organisations including our own Port
The site of a potential new Mosgiel subdivision.
Otago arguing that it is not a fresh water instrument. The delays caused by this court process, together with Covid, major world disruption, and serious inflationary pressures and the very real possibility that we will not be able to complete a wellconsulted and robust LWP concerned us.
Mrs Gardner cautioned against seeking an extension because such a request may upset the minister, iwi and others, cause delay to other processes around water permits and that we may trigger the minister to intervene further, such as by replacing us with commissioners.
We wrote to the minister asking to talk to him about considering a longer timeframe. He sensibly sent Prof Skelton down to see how it was all going and to engage with our concerns. He may well have confidence we can do it in the time and we will box on to do what we promised.
We did not ask for an extension. We did take earlier advice which took us down a path to court and consequent major delays.
We did not refuse to engage with the minister in case it damaged our relationship or led to us being replaced with commissioners.
It is our job to keep the minister informed. We should not avoid doing so on the basis that the minister might not want to hear from us or might fire us for wanting to talk to him.
ORC councillor ...................................
BIBLE READING: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel. —Isaiah 7.14. (ODT,
IN recognition of the importance of readers’ contributions to the letters page, the newspaper each week selects a Letter of the Week with a book prize courtesy of Otago University Press.
This week’s winner is Terry Lake, of Oamaru, for a letter about cartoonists. The prize is a copy of Slow Fire Burning, Paula Hawkins. The winning letter was published on Monday, May 16.