08 July 2011

When Auckland Council realised it had inherited bylaws from the old Auckland City Council that would require Boot Camp fitness programmes to acquire licences to be able to access public parks, it could have gone one of two ways. I applaud their decision to not impose a licensing regime.

Auckland Council has recognised how ‘un-Kiwi’ it would have been to look at this situation commercially by imposing a licence charge just because it could. This might have been the case in the past but the new Council has stepped back and taken a common sense approach. It’s great to see a real world pragmatism running through the new Super City.

This decision says many things – it says it is not business as previously usual in the new Auckland Council. Despite being a much larger beast, the Super City is able to respond to local issues decisively and is prepared to respond in a flexible and pragmatic way when such situations arise.

This bodes well – it demonstrates a common sense approach to delivering outcomes over a wide range of issues for our city.

Here’s a well-deserved bouquet to Council.

Alex Swney, CEO, Heart of the City

ENDS

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