David Thornton Â

Hearing Commissioner [RMA Accredited]
Member, Glenfield Community Board

[David Thornton is a former member of North Shore City Council, Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee and Greater London Council]

Bureaucrats Back Brothel

The Resource Consent approval for a ‘Brazilian Love Hotel’ in Glenfield was made by non-elected North Shore City Council staff acting under delegated authority from the elected councillors.

As a qualified Hearing Commissioner making decisions in a weekly resource consent hearings process, I regularly make decisions on resource consent applications, many of them in relation to tree removal or minor matters such as overheight fences.

But the significant decision to allow a brothel in Parity Place, Glenfield, has been made by council staff.

The community of Glenfield, which elected me to office as a Community Board member, had some expectation that those elected would have some control over what happens in their community.

As part my role as an elected member I obtained a qualification under the Resource Management Act to be a Hearing Commissioner to hear and decide resource consent applications.

Regrettably the councillors of North Shore City Council decided that council staff were better qualified to make decisions on a whole range of planning matters and that there was no need for accountable elected members to be involved.

The application for a brothel was obviously going to be controversial and should have required the views of local businesses and residents.

However council staff, who are not answerable to the community, decided to approve the application without seeking the views of the community.

It is hard to blame the non-elected staff if the elected councillors gave them such authority.

If this application had come before me I would certainly have asked for the application to be notified and called for submissions from the public.

For those who have fears about the powers of bureaucrats in SuperCity this should be an object lesson – elected members must have the power to control the decision-making powers of paid employees, otherwise why do we need elected members?

ends

© Scoop Media