Kapiti Council Must Be More Open With Public

"Kapiti Coast Council Must Be More Open With Public"

The 'Turn the Tide' movement says the Kapiti Coast District Council must be more open with the public on development plans. It says the Council is failing to properly notify controversial developments to interested parties.

The KCDC decided recently not to publicly notify a new subdivision near a scientific reserve on the Waikanae River estuary.

The Forest and Bird Society has challenged this and work on the Kotuku Parks subdivision has now stalled pending a High Court decision.

Turn the Tide council candidate Lyndy McIntyre says this follows a long line of bad calls by the KCDC.

Ms McIntyre says the new Council will have to 'get a grip' on Council staff who are favouring developers over genuine open-ness with the public.

"All developments like that at Kotuku Park must be publicly notified," she says "and the Council must make sure that key environmental groups, like Forest and Bird, are properly informed.

Ms McIntyre adds: "Of course the most flagrant example of a bad KCDC decision came with the sale of Paraparaumu Airport to a group of Auckland developers last year.

"Council staff bent over backwards to help the developers and failed utterly to institute any genuine public consultation under the Local Government Act on the future of the airfield.

"Of course they were aided and abetted by the two councillors for the Airport Ward and the Mayor, as well as three other councillors."

She says: "These politicians were quite willing to hear two protracted presentations by the developers - one a 'closed-door session in the local police station!

"But they were unwilling to hear the views of local people warning about the dangers of massive commercial development at the airport."

"The new Council will have to change. It will have to Turn the Tide against continuing rampant over-development throughout the Coast."

ENDS

© Scoop Media