Dialogue: Water everywhere but nowhere close to go

By BRIAN RUDMAN

For the publicity-shy owners of the old downtown Ferry Building, 2000 wasn't a bad year.

They made a $404,204 profit from rental income and somehow scraped enough together to add another renter to their portfolio - Blacketts Building at 86 Queen St.

However, despite all this cash flying about, they were too mean to keep the public toilets open for waiting ferry passengers.

On Sunday, April 22 this year, the dunny door was bolted and has been ever since.

In explanatory discussions with the Auckland City Council and ferry operators Fullers Group, Marcus Macdonald, a Phillips Fox solicitor, and New Zealand-based director for the Cayman Islands-registered owners, Xakeila Holdings Ltd and Orizaba Holdings Ltd, bleated on about the excessive costs involved.

Initially he told the city council the annual cost of toilet maintenance was $6500.

On March 26, 2001, he wrote again to say that figure was wrong. The correct figure was $65,000 and was too much of a burden for the partnership - jointly worth $9.4 million - to bear.

Whichever is the correct figure, you would have thought someone renting out a public facility such as a ferry building, complete with working toilets when they took it over, would include in their rental calculations the cost of running the dunnies.

That's certainly what the Auckland City Council thought.

In fact it thought that providing public toilet facilities was a condition of the resource consent it granted at the time the Ferry Building was restored in the mid-1980s.

Through autumn and winter, while ferry passengers have had to wait on shore with legs crossed, words have flown about.

Paul Wilson, ferry passenger and Auckland City parks and streetscape manager, knows only too well what a cold breeze can do to a waiting bladder.

He made it quite clear to the building owners that, "We really believe it's their responsibility to provide toilets as part of the operation of the Ferry Building".

Mr Wilson says that as far as the city is concerned this was specified in the resource consent.

However, he admits, that "it wasn't particularly clear", and that when legal backing was sought, the advice "wasn't particularly helpful".

Ferry operators Fullers Group were soon getting it in the neck from irate customers.

In a letter to Auckland City, general manager Chris Bradley said the nearby Downtown shopping centre toilets were no use "after hours when a lot of patrons are looking for toilet facilities".

He said that "from previous experience we have found that doorways, walkways etc around the Ferry Building are often fouled with urine, faeces, vomit etc when the public have nowhere close to go".

What a lovely picture of North Shore citizenry - who are the main ferry users - this image conjures up.

Too gruesome for Auckland City anyway, which has finally decided to take over the toilets itself.

Auckland ratepayers will have to fork out about $50,000 a year for the cleaning and maintenance of the facilities.

On top of that, Mr Macdonald and his shadowy shareholders are demanding rent from the city.

Only "peppercorn", I'm told, but to me even one peppercorn is too much for these far from community-minded landlords.

When the number of peppercorns is finalised, the deal will be finalised - probably within a week or two.

And how much will the North Shore ratepayers, who have been doing most of the yelling, pay?

Not a lot, it seems. Mr Wilson, who is one of them himself, says he hasn't approached North Shore City as an Auckland City employee to suggest sharing the cost.

As for charging for a visit, that's against Auckland City policy.

Meanwhile, a little closer to home, a famous victory. My thundering, last Wednesday, about traffic engineers and their lack of love for pedestrians resulted in instant action.

Or so I like to dream.

In passing I'd had another blast about the lack of pedestrian lights or crossings at the perilous junctions where Union St and Franklin Rd meet Victoria St beneath the Victoria Park flyover.

On Thursday - and the ink hardly dry - there were pedestrian lights being installed.