29th August 2013

‘Gold-Plated’ Bollards for Kaipatiki?

Kaipatiki Local Board member John Gillon is flabbergasted that the Board has allocated a total of $100,000 of ratepayers’ money to installing bollards along Eskdale Reserve.

At last night’s Kaipatiki Local Board meeting, a figure of $55,000 was given by Auckland Transport to install bollards along the Domain Road and Glenfield Road frontages of Eskdale Reserve, which would be in the same style as at Little Shoal Bay Reserve. The Board voted to increase that figure to $60,000 to enable a different style of bollard, to come from the Auckland Transport Local Board Capital Projects fund.

The Kaipatiki Local Board also allocated a top-up of $40,000 from the Local Parks Furniture and Fixtures Renewals budget to the project, making a total of $100,000.

“Bollards will look great, but this is not a priority project and not worth the original $55,000 quote, let alone the $100,000 that the Local Board allocated to it,” said John Gillon. “We don’t need ‘gold-plated’ bollards when 50% of our Parks projects are behind schedule and there is a list of other renewal projects in our area not proceeding due to a lack of funding.”

The Parks officer present at the meeting confirmed that there were a range of other renewal projects that were lacking funding.

The Auckland Transport officer present confirmed that the $60,000 could be allocated to other projects instead and that any unspent money would not be lost but would roll over to the next Local Board term.

All Kaipatiki Local Board members present supported allocating $100,000 to the bollard project, except for John Gillon, Vivienne Keohane and Grant Gillon who recorded their votes against both resolutions.

Kaipatiki Local Board Resolutions:

Item 23:

That the Kaipatiki Local Board:
a) approves expenditure of $60,000 from the Local Board Transport Capital Fund (additional to the $40,000 allocated from the parks renewal budget under Item 16 of this meeting) for the installation of the Eskdale Reserve bollards (of a higher standard, given the high visibility of this renewal), and authorises Auckland Transport to proceed to construction.

Item 16:

That the Kaipatiki Local Board:
h) allocates $40,000 from its Local parks furniture and fixtures renewals budget to the Eskdale Reserve Bollards project, to augment the funding allocated under the Auckland Transport Local Board Capital Fund.

ends

[NOTE: This is a personal media release from John Gillon and does not necessarily reflect the view of the Kaipatiki Local Board.]

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