Council is strangling progress
Great headline (’Golden decade’ for city? April 26). A tantalising glimpse of promise for us ratepayers.
But council has to accept that 10-20% rates increases each year is not the sort of visionary focus we need when the rates dollar reservoir is limited.
Our nation has voted strongly for a change which calls for a business-like approach to forward planning and clearly the council is blind to the direction needed and the opportunities available.
The Business Canterbury presentation (Press, April 24) laid out bluntly that fresh thinking and direction is needed but the CCHL proposal to better manage the council’s assets was rejected. Nobody can convince me those around the council table have the acumen, wit or vision to produce the change of direction needed.
Councillors cannot keep doing the same-old, same-old. Get out, your current thinking is strangling our city’s progress.
Graham Copp, Southshore
Ring-fenced fund
The Business Canterbury submission to the Long-Term Plan says better funding is needed to attract and keep more events for the city. It welcomes the prospect of a council climate resilience fund and it wants to widen the range of future events it is used for.
Excuse me? The Climate Resilience Fund is intended to reduce the impact of climate change on future generations. It would be ring-fenced to support actions for adaptation plans such as raising lifeline roads for communities and protecting drinking water.
Business Canterbury appears to be suggesting critical council funding be diverted from climate change adaptation to attract more events that would benefit its business interests. How very shortsighted and self-serving of them. Victoria Andrews, Akaroa
Development hitch
I’ve been pondering the dilemma of the Carter Group and the little blue cottage threatening to derail its latest development, according to group head Philip Carter (April 20), recently named by The Press as top of its “Power List”.
Mr Carter is apparently unhappy with Christchurch City Council because it won’t let him demolish the heritage-listed blue cottage on the site of the former Christchurch Girls’ High building on Cranmer Square.
I’m puzzled because I would presume with all his experience he would have known the cottage (and two protected trees) were heritage-listed and protected before his group bought the land and planned the development.
Christchurch has lost so much of its heritage since the earthquakes.
Surely, with the power, expertise and experience at Mr Carter’s disposal, the little blue cottage, and the trees, could be retained, restored and transformed into an asset instead of a negative nuisance.
It could be a unique opportunity to benefit the community. It could become a cafe, a coming-together place for those in the area.
Mr Carter could use his power to create an oasis that could bring credit to the Carter Group money can’t buy.
J M Paviell, Waikari [abridged]
Confidence undermined
I was shocked to read that ECan chair and South Canterbury farmer Peter Scott did not know the extent of his land area, and did not have suitable irrigation consents in place ahead of time (ECan boss winds back admission of illegal irrigation, April 27).
He leads an organisation that has underperformed due to underfunding and mismanagement due to “political interference” for decades. I had thought Scott was providing experience and leadership to get the organisation on the right path but, yet again, it seems words are cheap.
S M McNeill, St Albans
Fundamental issue
Red Sapwell’s defence of building inspectors’ qualifications (Letters, April 27) is to be applauded but does not address the fundamental issue I raised, that local authorities should not be involved with building consents, inspections, and compliance certificates.
The rate-paying community should have no part in this process as it is currently managed.
There is no justification at all for ratepayers to meet the cost of remedying faulty consent, inspection or compliance procedures for a building they have no interest in.
Responsibility for code-compliant workmanship should rest entirely with the builder, who should be required to offer a warranty as agreed between the builder and client before commencement of the build.
Stuart McKinlay, Lincoln
Approving damage
The Fast-track Approvals Bill will allow activities that are environmentally damaging.
There are few cases where projects can’t enter the fast-track process for environmental reasons.
One of the most concerning aspects isthat prohibited RMA activities are specifically made eligible.
These outright bans are for the most environmentally dangerous activities, yet they are enabled by this Bill.
There is also no requirement to stop the referral of projects that would increase greenhouse gas emissions, contribute to extinctions, pollute freshwater, cause risk to human health, pollute or dam water bodies covered by water conservation orders, or even breach international law on marine dumping. This is completely unacceptable.
This legislation aims to avoid or negate all the existing environmental protections we have established over several decades. The ministers of environment and climate change have no role in providing oversight or a veto on projects selected for the fast-track system.
For a country with unique biodiversity already under stress and surrounded by oceans warming and increasing in acidity, this omission is extremely irresponsible. Jenny Easton, Nelson
Arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters continued into the weekend, as student groups nationwide resisted orders to break down encampments, and some universities pointed to antisemitic acts on their campuses.
In Boston, the Northeastern University Police Department cleared an encampment that the school claimed had been “infiltrated by professional organisers with no affiliation to Northeastern,” according to a school spokesperson.
“Kill the Jews” was shouted at the demonstration, though there were conflicting reports about who the remark came from.
The Huntington News, Northeastern’s independent student paper, said its reporters “heard someone say the statement, but could not identify who said it.”
Separately, a video posted to an Instagram account for Huskies for Palestine - which has been coordinating campus protests - said the statement was shouted by pro-Israel counter-supporters as provocation. The Washington Post could not independently verify the claims.
The heated scene was just the latest clash between students, police and university leadership since campus protests erupted this month.
From Boston to California, student groups are demanding schools cut any financial ties to Israel, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and defying pressure from administrators to disassemble.
The turmoil has prompted schools to cancel graduation ceremonies and shut down in-person classes.
At the University of Indiana, Bloomington, authorities cleared an encampment, according to social media posts by the university’s student newspaper.
In video footage posted online by the campus newspaper, several officers wielding batons clashed with the crowd.
Demonstrations were also broken up at the University of Pennsylvania, where Interim President J. Larry Jameson said “harassing and intimidating comments and actions” violated university policies, along with state and federal laws.
Jameson also said there was vandalism of a campus statue “with antisemitic graffiti” and said it would be investigated as a hate crime.
In downtown Denver, about 40 protesters were arrested on Friday at the Auraria Higher Education Centre, home to the University of Colorado Denver, Community College of Denver, and the Metropolitan State University of Denver.
After Denver Mayor Mike Johnston urged for the tents to come down on Saturday, the Colorado Palestine Coalition posted a photo of the encampment early the next day on X saying, “Update we didn’t, and the cops have left!”
In some places, crackdowns have become especially tense. In Atlanta, police officers broke up an encampment at Emory University, with one officer using a stun gun on a protester who was being restrained, according to social media video examined by The Washington Post.
In Denver, the education centre said the Auraria Campus police along with Denver police broke up an encampment of tents on one of the main quads. Then, after the encampment had been cleared, some protesters returned to the area and set up more than 30 tents.
Footage from local television showed law enforcement authorities carrying students from the protest site. The Auraria Campus said those detained were charged with trespassing, and that student protesters had been joined by people from outside the schools.
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, has closed for the last few weeks of the semester and turned to remote study after protesters who barricaded themselves inside a building ignored a deadline to leave.
Washington Post