Libertarianz Housing Deregulation Spokesman Keith Patterson says Auckland City Council's latest social engineering highlights local governments' anti-freedom agenda, as displayed at the Local Body Association's recent conference.

Apartment builders and families in Auckland City are to be smacked by Council's proposed District Plan change that will allow only one carpark per new apartment, coupled with numerous other restrictions on carparks any new development can provide. "It seems pretty obvious to point out that councils should not have this sort of dictatorial power to control how people will build their homes - the number of car parks you choose to provide is properly nobody's business but your own, and the buyer of your apartment," says an angry Patterson.

The avowed reason for the increased restriction is to improve Auckland's traffic problems. "If petty little bureaucrats kept their sticky fingers out of people¹s lives, we could solve traffic congestion problems ourselves. The normal forces of economics will have people on public transport when they are fed up with traffic hassles, and apartments in town will sell to people who do not want to commute. In the meantime," says Patterson, "let me offer a message to the social engineers of both central and local government: Leave us alone!"

ENDS

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