City Vision better not have the cheek to complain

It was announced earlier today that the final plans for the Eden-Epsom recreational precinct are now on public display. These plans represent over two years of consultation with residents and stakeholders, and was signed off by a joint community board meeting between Eden-Albert and Hobson Wards in late June.

"Congratulations should go to Cr Donnelly and Cr Milne for pushing this forward. They have worked hard to deliver what the locals want," said Aaron Bhatnagar, Hobson Community Board member.

"The behaviour of the joint board meeting that signed off on the plans was interesting to note. The Citizens and Ratepayers Now teams collated what the public wanted and voted for it," said Mr Bhatnagar. "What is interesting to note is that the City Vision team abstained en masse, rather than vote in agreement with C&R Now on what the public wanted."

"City Vision better not have the cheek to complain - they whined incessantly that they were being muzzled because of questions about one of their members having a potential conflict of interest. When it came to voting time, their abstentions spoke volumes about how cynical their position on Eden-Epsom was. A crowd of 150 people that came preparing to boo their local body politicians left cheering and clapping the C&R Now team for delivering on the night," said Mr Bhatnagar.

"City Vision wanted endless consultations for the Eden-Epsom precinct. They wanted to turn this into an election issue rather than getting on with the job. Good governance is about consulting and then deciding. This is what we have done," said Mr Bhatnagar.

Aaron Bhatnagar is the Parks and Recreations spokesman on the Hobson Community Board in Auckland City.

Aaron Bhatnagar

http://bhatnagar.blogspot.com

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>