KEY POINTS:
A small band of Citizens & Ratepayers aspirants have attacked their own councillors' support for tearing up red chip footpaths in heritage suburbs such as Ponsonby.
The C&R community board team in Western Bay - Susana Tuya, Paul Stephenson and Dave Fermah - have mocked the performance of City Vision in a full-page advertisement in Ponsonby News headed, "Don't read this if you are easily offended."
Among the reminders are the $85,000 round-the-world "junket" by City Vision councillors Penny Sefuiva and Vern Walsh, banning outside seating on Ponsonby Rd after 11pm and cutting off city views with a proposed ring of high-rise apartment buildings at the Tank Farm.
As for improvements, City Vision had rid heritage areas of red asphalt footpaths, replacing them with black footpaths to match road and car crossings.
"Aha, makes the grey cardboard box look good," the advertisement read.
C&R councillors sided with City Vision and Mayor Dick Hubbard last year to vote to tear up red chip footpaths in heritage suburbs, despite a last-minute plea from a group of Epsom and Newmarket residents.
Only Action Hobson councillors Christine Caughey and Richard Simpson and independent Faye Storer voted to keep the distinctive red chip footpaths.
Mr Fermah, a businessman, said the decision to tear up red chip footpaths was typical of the council messing with the cultural fabric of suburbs such as Ponsonby and Grey Lynn and dumbing the whole city to the same level.
If he was elected, he would be agitating the new council to keep red chipfootpaths.
"Primarily, it's City Vision at the moment, so they deserve to get a good bollocking. But if C&R come in and don't take notice, then they deserve to get it as well."
C&R leader Scott Milne said the ticket had no plans to change the new one-size-fits-all footpath policy, but there was nothing to stop a cohesive community effort to keep red chip footpaths.
