26 November 2004

New committee brings together urban living considerations for the first time

Chairperson for the newly formed Environment, Heritage and Urban Form Committee, Councillor Christine Caughey, says she is looking forward to the new direction this committee will be taking.

In her introduction to the committee, council staff and interested members of the public, Ms Caughey highlighted the importance of the new committee in moving Auckland forward.

“Auckland is at a crossroads, much of the city is reaching a state of crisis, especially our urban form,” she says. “The new direction this committee will take will enable the development of a healthy city where people seek to live, enjoy living and want to invest, now and in the future.

“For the first time we have an Auckland City committee that brings together our key city- wide concerns – environment, heritage and urban form,” she says. “I feel confident that the committee will achieve a great deal with this new focus.”

Ms Caughey acknowledged the inevitable growth of the city and the need for an integrated planning approach for the city’s urban form, including sustainable environmental policies, heritage and urban design.

Some of the key focal areas for the environment, heritage and urban form committee are:

to create higher quality urban form and more efficient use of land

more protective care for our built heritage, open space, cultural, social and natural history, and

to work towards achieving rapid transit solutions in tandem with good urban form.

“This committee seeks to plan for and to create an Auckland which has confidence in a co-ordinated future, rather than relying on a piecemeal development,” says Ms Caughey.

“This is no easy task, but we hope to achieve this aim through close consultation with the public and utilising the expertise of council staff and external professionals,” she says.

ENDS

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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>>