Over the past few weeks we have been encouraging Northlanders to share their views on the Hundertwasser Art Centre proposal.
On Monday, I delivered a submission to Whangarei District Council, with the letters we have been sent recently.
I also included the result of a poll we conducted on our website.
We had more than 700 respondents to the poll, and about 65 per cent were in favour of the centre.
Of the letters we received, it was a similar ratio, but "against".
We did not receive 700 letters, but we published more than 10,000 words from readers on Hundertwasser over the past few weeks - that's a great community response.
What happens next? I would suggest a few things.
That the council listen to the constructive negative, positive and neutral submissions, and then consider where the funding is coming from. I mention the constructive submissions, because I think the submissions that are spiteful, personal, attacks on councillors or the council should be filed in the rubbish bin.
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As for the funding, it is clear from the submissions that with an economic development project such as this, there is huge unease at the cost to ratepayers.
A project such as this is outside the area of expertise of our council.
What the public want to see is more information beyond a report or two ... a measured, professional plan that communicates to ratepayers.
Have we seen this yet? I don't think so.
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