Auckland jumping gun over Britomart

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland City is applying for resource consents for a replacement Britomart project before it has firmed up what to build in the way of a downtown transport terminal.

Auckland Mayor Christine Fletcher said that to avoid future delays the council was applying now for resource consents to cover a range of options for a transport terminal at the bottom of Queen St.

"We know that when we do get to the point where we want to progress it, we will want to progress it quite quickly and we won't want resource consent issues to be slowing us down," Mrs Fletcher said.

Councillor David Hay has criticised Mrs Fletcher and her deputy, Dr Bruce Hucker, for a lack of consistency for seeking resource consents before the council knows what it is building and a cost-benefit analysis has been done.

He said Mrs Fletcher and Dr Hucker got stuck into the previous council for the way it went about getting resource consents and for not doing a cost-benefit analysis.

"Now they are doing exactly the same thing," Mr Hay said.

It took 26 months for the previous Britomart scheme, canned by the council last November, to get resource consents.

The council has been talking to neighbouring property owners and interested parties to try to prevent a repeat of the process being dragged through the Environment Court.

Mrs Fletcher said the resource consent process was running in parallel with the design and details for a transport centre at the bottom of Queen St.

The council is seeking resource consents from the Auckland Regional Council for an underground transport terminal with a maximum of six platforms with access through the old Chief Post Office.

It has gone for maximum flexibility for heavy and light rail coming into Queen St.

A basic station with five tracks has been costed at about $70 million, with an extra $4 million to refurbish the ground floor of the Post Office building.

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