KEY POINTS:
Auckland City Council has launched an internal inquiry after building a carpark in a posh suburb without resource consent - and could prosecute itself.
The half-finished 200-car "park and ride" project is lodged between a proposed apartment block and the Orakei train station, but builders have downed tools until the consent is granted.
Situated on the edge of the Orakei Basin, the area has a number of consent issues including volcanic cone protection and the potential impact a carpark would have on traffic flows.
The council is investigating how the mix-up occurred and whether any further action should be taken. No more work can take place unless resource consent is granted.
Aaron Bhatnagar, of the Hobson Community Board and Orakei Residents' Society, said "heads should roll" over the botch-up and questioned whether the council would rubberstamp the project, or subject it to public scrutiny.
"It's sheer incompetency. This is not an isolated planning incident with all the snarl-ups in Queen St and bungles elsewhere," Bhatnagar said.
"Someone needs to be held responsible, because this council is too focused on removing billboards rather than fixing problems elsewhere."
A council spokeswoman confirmed the resource consent was "outstanding" but a hearing date had been set for the end of March.
The council was investigating why work on the park and ride facility - where drivers can leave their cars and take the train to the city - had begun without consent.
Any findings would determine whether any further action should be taken, including prosecution for bylaw breaches.
"Unfortunately, preliminary investigations indicate that in this case a misunderstanding led to work being carried out before a land use consent had been issued," the council said in a statement.
"This is something the council takes seriously and is now doing everything in its power to rectify."
Barry Smedts, council regulatory services manager, said it was too early to say what laws had been broken, what penalties applied, or whether the council would prosecute itself.
He said the transport division of the council had mistakenly thought resource consent had been accepted and added that resource consent could be granted retrospectively.
But Smedts conceded there were aspects of the application which did not meet consent guidelines.
Waitakere City Council successfully prosecuted itself last week in the name of even-handed administration of regulations after it failed to get consents to move six houses.
In Waitakere District Court the council was fined $4800 and ordered to pay $780 court costs and will pay the money - aside from the court's 10 per cent share of the fines - to itself.
The Orakei park and ride facility is adjacent to a controversial residential development on the water's edge of Hobson Bay.
Orakei and Remuera residents have raised $65,000 to appeal the four-level apartment building with 42 residential units giving the public an opportunity to have a say.
