Site Removal an Admission of Failure

FRIDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Democracy Action is labelling the removal of 600 Sites of Value from the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan as an admission of failure by the Council.

Democracy Action Chairman, Lee Short, says:

"Voting to remove these sites amounts to an admission that the Council jumped the gun introducing the Mana Whenua provisions in the first place. Aucklanders expect planning regulations to be based on solid evidence, not blind guesses."

"“However the Council has voted to retain 3,000 sites when it is quite clear that no prior assessment has been done to verify their authenticity. Our volunteers have been doing what the Council has so far refused to do. By using the Council's own GPS data, we have found so-called Sites of Value in residential subdivisions, underneath community buildings, in the middle of industrial estates and even one in an old landfill."

"It is clear that these supposed sites have been destroyed. Even Ngati Whatua Orakei has admitted the current regime is not working."

"We at Democracy Action are not questioning the need for the appropriate protection of genuine and significant sites of historical and cultural heritage. However such sites must undergo a formal procedure involving the criteria and methodology as set out in the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014, thereby ensuring that the private property rights of Aucklanders are not eroded without good reason."

ENDS

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