Disappointing Mt Eden prison tower signed off by Phil Goff

Today's official opening of the controversial $218m Mt Eden prison tower is a big disappointment for a city desperate to improve its built environment," says Councillor Cameron Brewer, chair of Auckland Council's Planning & Urban Design Forum.

"At the peak of the real estate market, the Department of Corrections made the decision for Mt Eden Prison to stay when they could have got an absolute packet for this piece of land. They should have taken the chance to sell up, relocate and expand in a more sustainable and appropriate location. It was a bad mistake and unfortunately Aucklanders will have to live with it for generations.

"Given the nearby five-hectare Lion Brewery site sold in 2007 for $162m, the previous Government could have got a huge sum for the similar sized prison site. The central location would have been ripe for a commercial park.

"Unfortunately the desire to keep remand prisoners closer to their families and to the courts, won over good urban design. It looks a bit better than most people anticipated but it's a terrible gateway into central Auckland. Let's not forget that over 160,000 cars pass it every day.

"The new council needs to put its foot down with the Government over the placement of prisons in and around Auckland. Eden Terrace was not the right place for an eight-storey prison tower and arguably Wiri is not the right place for the proposed 1,500 men's prison."

Mr Brewer said it was Opposition Leader Phil Goff who as former Corrections Minister advocated for and signed off the prison extension back in 2007. He says although Mr Goff boasted about the facilities four years ago, he suspects the Opposition Leader won't be keen to take much credit now.

"Alarmingly a previous council's urban design panel also signed it off and it was approved by council-appointed planning commissioners."

Mr Brewer says on the issue of building height, a previous Auckland City Council's urban design panel concluded in October 2006 'that the proposed building heights represented a good balance between the department's site-capacity requirement, retention of the heritage features and minimisation of visual impacts.'

"It was unbelievable that this was signed off as good urban design. The public expects the new Auckland Council to do much better," says Cameron Brewer.

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