Important to remember city's maritime heritage

Mike Lee thinks the Bledisloe proposal is

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee has labelled as "silly and scatty" a proposal that a national convention centre and six-star hotel should be built on Bledisloe Container Terminal.

"I think it is a pretty dumb idea given the importance of Bledisloe for containers and bulk cargoes," he said.

"I do believe we need a convention centre. I would have thought an expansion of the Aotea Centre would be much better. The other option would at the [ASB] Showgrounds [in Epsom]."

Lee said the Aotea Centre had the advantage of being in the middle of the central business district and the cultural heart of the city and there was sufficient adjacent land to expand it.

In any case, he doubted Ports of Auckland would part with the Bledisloe terminal. "To be honest, crowbarring Queens Wharf out of Ports of Auckland was hard enough. It has been an arduous exercise."

Lee said many people had forgotten that New Zealand was a trading nation and that ports were a reflection of that.

"We are a maritime city and the port is more important than the present generation thinks."

Lee said he was excited that the new Auckland Council, with $27 billion in assets, would have the wherewithal to provide a convention centre.

"The Government is doing the right thing [over Auckland's governance]. It would be frank to say that the Royal Commission [on Auckland Governance] lost its way. For all that they did come down in support for a single entity."

The cost of relocating Bledisloe's services, were Bledisloe to become home to a national convention centre and six-star hotel (as Auckland city mayor John Banks suggests), would not be cheap.

Ports of Auckland bills it as a world-class operation, providing 14.5ha of container facilities with three ship-to-shore cranes and a third container ship berth 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"This means," says the port company, "more ships on more services can be accommodated simultaneously at Ports of Auckland than at any other New Zealand port."

Although much smaller than the recently enlarged Fergusson Container Terminal, Bledisloe remains an asset Ports of Auckland is unwilling or unlikely to part with soon (unlike Queens Wharf which was surplus to the port company's requirements).

The group manager for regional development agency AucklandPlus, Clyde Rogers, said the economic return from the port contributed to Auckland's long-term success.