Rudman's city: We're deeper in it than we were at the start of the year

By BRIAN RUDMAN

We Aucklanders like to pride ourselves on our get up and go. But flicking through a year's columns, it is hard to spot many signs of progress. Apart, that is, from the liberating of inner-city pavements from the curse of the sandwich board.

No mean feat, for sure, but hardly one of the big issues of our time. Unfortunately, when we turn to those - matters such as congested roads, inadequate public transport - we end the year seemingly deeper in the mire than we began it. That's if the new pro-road Auckland mayor and city council carry out their plans to relitigate the regional consensus, hammered out over years of unprecedented regional cooperation.

Having started the year with the American Express money card company forking out a reputed $2 million to Team New Zealand in return for the right to rename the Viaduct Basin after itself, it's ironic to end 2001 with the public clamouring to rename the place after murdered Team New Zealand hero Peter Blake.

Should Amex concede to public pressure and surrender gracefully? Or will it demand its money back and risk public opprobrium, however undeserved? Above all, what would Sir Peter, whose loyalty to his sponsors was 100 per cent, think?

I hope it will go into the too-hard basket and we'll be left with what we've got, Viaduct Harbour. Better still, we could revert to the original and quaintly attractive Viaduct Basin.

Talking complicated, the $300,000 Botanic Garden noise wall at Manurewa is a problem that gets more insoluble by the minute. It went up in January to protect the garden trees from the noise of the neighbouring motorway. It was hardly finished before neighbours across the motorway were up in arms, claiming noise was being reflected off the wall into their houses.

Noise consultants Marshall Day Associates counter this by arguing the problem is not a noise issue but a visual one. It says the barrier is blocking the neighbours' old views and they are angry.

Manukau City Council gave planning consent for the wall but now backs the protesters' call that it be felled. Last Monday, the garden's owners, the Auckland Regional Council, decided instead to spend another $180,000 applying a sound-absorbent skin to the barrier.

This will not be the end of it. Of that I'm certain. The ARC will have to apply to Manukau City for another resource consent. That promises to be a fractious process. In my mind the big question is: if, as the experts argue, the wall is not causing a noise problem, then how will the new sound-absorbent panels make any difference? And if, in turn, the neighbours notice no difference and still end up with a new ugly wall to contemplate, will they continue to be angry?

Talking very angry, this week also brought a secret settlement of the Parnell Baths fiasco. You'll recall how wealthy lawyers Michael Reed, QC, and Derek Quigley and a handful of their neighbours in snooty Judges Bay stalled a $3.84 million renovation of neighbouring city institution the 87-year-old Parnell Baths. The complainants appealed to the Environment Court, claiming the resource consent granted the project was "wrong in fact and law".

Mr Reed and his mates were upset about the late-night boy-racers plaguing that end of town. The council came up with traffic-calming proposals, but the complainers wanted more. By linking the issues, they had the council over a barrel.

In mid-November, Judge John Bollard ordered mediation and told Mr Reed, who had been coy about naming the fellow members of his "residents action group", to reveal all.

It turned out to be a select group. Those "who have so far authorised their names to be listed" were, apart from Mr Reed, four other residents and two mystery entities, Peninsula Trust and Targa Trust.

On Monday Mr Reed, Mr Quigley and about 18 other interested parties and their lawyers met. After the deal was hammered out, it was agreed that a joint statement, saying what good chaps we all are, would be issued and until then lips would remain sealed. I'm still waiting, but the guts of the deal is as follows.

Mr Reed and friends have pulled in their horns. In return, the city council will nearly double - from $16,000 to $30,000 - the amount it is willing to spend on "traffic smoothing". The council will also pay for design work.

Initially the council made its money conditional on Mr Reed and company putting in $20,000. Mr Reed baulked at making this commitment, insisting on a month to consult his neighbours. To break the impasse, the council said it would go ahead anyway and if the locals wanted to pay more for a better scheme, they could.

An unsavoury affair, but at least the renovations can now begin this autumn.

One last piece of unfinished business. A year ago, I was bemoaning the failure of the city to open up the glorious renovated Civic Theatre to sightseers.

Despite reports and feasibility studies, we enter the tourist season with the doors still locked to all. Some things just never change.

Finally, to all the tipsters out there - you know who you are - many thanks for your help over the year. For any unanswered letters and e-mails, my apologies. If I had a secretary, I'd blame him. Happy holidays.