Anyone who has applied to FNDC for permission to do anything up here recently will have noted a hardening attitude to information. The demands for paper are now legendary for any application and you have to wonder what is driving this.
Well it has been explained to me (sort of) that council is toughening up to reduce the risk of it being sued. On the face of it that sounds sensible but as usual that’s not what is happening and those of you who have luckily restricted your council involvement to paying rates probably haven’t heard too many complaints so think things are OK.
Well they’re not and the reason you don’t hear is that there is a climate of fear developing where folk are scared to complain in case their case gets held up even longer and becomes even more difficult to comply with.
Individual coastal dwellers now face the need for engineering reports on the possibility of damage in the distant future from global warming super-storms accompanied with violent wave action. Nobody wants to face this, but also any engineer that writes reports about such an unknown future isn’t worth hiring. If council are worried about such things they should commission such reports as they won’t just affect an individual’s property, they will affect large areas.
In the meantime council continue to approve subdivisions without sewerage treatment when there are plenty of sections on the market already and there is endless evidence that on site effluent systems, no matter how sophisticated just don’t work.
FNDC grill developers endlessly over traffic movements requiring passing bays in 50kph areas when the rest of the world is slowing urban traffic down with speed bumps and other traffic management furniture. FNDC write reports on cycle-ways yet there isn’t even a footpath linking tightly knit communities like Mangonui and Coopers Beach.
Our approval systems need to be simplified and the standards of what developers put in need to be improved. All new roads should be hot-mix sealed and have footpaths as well as cycle-ways all leading to sewered sections. This will stop law-suits and save ratepayers paying for stuff that should have been there in the first place.
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delays - delays - delays. If mayor Sharp thinks the F'nDC doesnt need fixing she cant have used its services of late.
I have and am sadly, seriously disappointed. Despite assurances over 2 months ago a permit I am seeking was "to be sorted/signed next week" it has yet to be issued.
signed: V Pistoff.
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