An addiction treatment centre is moving into a Mt Albert street. Hayley Hannan talks to the surprised neighbours, who are angry they were not told about it.
Shane Waugh looks over his scoria fence at a large weatherboard building, the dismay on his face apparent. After 27 years, he's getting a new neighbour.
Odyssey House Trust, which runs a number of drug and alcohol centres around the country, is moving in an addiction treatment centre for teenagers.
Despite the neighbours asking the Auckland Council what was going on as builders and nurses came and went from the site, they were never given any answers as the trust moved into Warrengate Hospital, a former retirement home which occupied the site from 1957 until its sale in November.
The council says it didn't have to tell the people living over the fence.
It has echoes of Don't Ask, Don't Tell - a case reported in The Aucklander on April 21, in which the council decided only a few residents of Banff Ave, Epsom, would be told about a three-storey office-apartment block next to their homes.
In Mt Albert, the trust plans to house 16 teenagers, male and female. They will live at the house, leaving each to go to school. Within Odyssey's secure walls, the teens will cook, sleep and receive treatment.
Mr Waugh gives me a wry smile. "They say it's only for 16 children. There was no consultation with the community and, when we tried to find out, there was nothing said."
Because of the way the consent was processed (see panel), neither the council nor the trust was required to tell the neighbours.
Mr Waugh: "When I was planning the extension to my house, I had to tell all of the neighbours, and each of the board of directors (of the former Warrengate Hospital) had to sign off on the plans."
For a fellow Lloyd St resident, Liz Hunter, the whole deal seems shady. She argues that the trust's treatment programme doesn't qualify it as a hospital.
"The consent given back in 1957 was to use the site as a private hospital. The question is: what is a hospital and does what Odyssey Trust do count as a hospital?"
Other residents are concerned about the type of centre going in; the street has a number of young families and is a main thoroughfare for children walking to the five local schools.
Representatives of the 30 to 40 concerned properties have contacted Odyssey House Trust, the Ministry of Health, Auckland Council, the local MP, David Shearer, and the Albert-Eden Local Board. All to no avail.
Odyssey's Frank Tracey says this type of centre will save hundreds of lives and that the trust has run similar centres successfully for 30 years. "All the research confirms that if we don't catch problems early we run the risk of losing the opportunity to turn young people away from a life of crime and destructive behaviour that affects us all."
The house has been fitted with fences, alarmed doors and security cameras. But, for Mr Waugh and his neighbourhood, the promise of tight security isn't enough to ease their worries.
Kept in the dark
The reason why none of the neighbours was told of the new centre is because, legally, Auckland Council and Odyssey House Trust didn't need to. The former retirement home, Warrengate Hospital, used a planning consent to operate as a hospital.
When Odyssey House decided to use the site to treat addictions, it applied to use Warrengate's existing consent.
So, this is what Odyssey House Trust has been granted: the use of a planning consent, issued in 1957, originally by the long-defunct Mt Albert Borough Council. Because the consent was already in place, and had been for many years, the trust didn't have to get the neighbourhood's agreement.
Auckland Council stands by its decision.
Ian Smallburn, central resource consents manager, says the council didn't need to issue a brand new resource consent, or notify the neighbourhood. "Based on the information supplied, [the] council concluded the proposed activity was within the scope of the existing planning consent.''
What's going on?
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