Heart of the City

MEDIA STATEMENT

15 April 2013
For Immediate Release

Council Ignoring Aucklanders’ Objections To Port Expansion

Auckland business and community leaders are uniting in opposition to Council plans to rubber stamp a Ports of Auckland Limited (POAL) proposal to push ahead with its expansion plans into the Waitemata Harbour.

Last year, Aucklanders responded overwhelmingly in support of a New Zealand Herald-led campaign against POAL’s plans to reclaim large swathes of the Waitemata Harbour for larger container ships, container stacking and imported cars.

However, Alex Swney, CEO of Auckland city business association Heart of the City, said the Council is ignoring these objections, and is now looking to include the POAL expansion in the Unitary Plan at a Council meeting tomorrow.

“We are deeply concerned by this, and that concern is shared by senior business figures, residents associations, the boating community, and people throughout Auckland,” said Mr Swney.

Mr Swney added that Aucklanders received some respite when Council stalled these plans pending a report on upper North Island trade capabilities and the wider implications for container growth on the waterfront, including access, transport linkages and a broad range of strategic outcomes for Auckland that are spelt out in the Auckland Plan.

“But what we now know is that the Council now no longer thinks such a report is necessary and has developed an alternative plan in conjunction with POAL that Councillors have received at a closed-door workshop,” said Mr Swney.

At this workshop, Swney explained, POAL scored their own 2008 expansion plans 0 out of 10 using their own criteria. The plan that was on the table and so heavily promoted last year only satisfied 5 of the ten new criteria.

“POAL are continuing to dispute the container growth projections made in the PWC report last year and will push ahead tomorrow with plans for a slightly reduced expansion, while also entrenching the right to reclaim further in the future,” said Mr Swney.

Mr Swney added that, in return for a 179-metre extension of Bledisloe Wharf POAL are attempting to “seduce” Aucklanders and Council with the prospect of purchasing Captain Cook Wharf for public use within five years.

These back-room machinations have only come to light in the past week and have seen a groundswell of public concern against the haste of this process and the possible results.

“We received some comfort from the Council resolutions of last year looking to identify the wider issues associated with such extreme reclamations of our harbour for container stacks and imported cars,” said Mr Swney. “We fully expected that the report sought by Council would consider the huge costs of harbour dredging, rail linkages and roading, and would reveal the full costs of doubling the number of containers transferred though our Port.”

Mr Swney said that the Unitary Plan should not be used as a “Trojan Horse” to advance the latest incarnation of the POAL reclamation plans.

“So much is being rushed through the Unitary Plan,” he said. “It is our view that there is no requirement for these reclamation plans to be in or to affect in any way in the Unitary Plan which is to be notified in September.”

Any future Port reclamations can be dealt with in a plan change if required, Mr Swney said, provided the broader study was completed first.

Heart of the City agreed that current port volumes would grow, Mr Swney added, and agreed with proposals to concentrate container operations in the east.

“But growth in bulk break and vehicles could be accommodated without extending Bledisloe northward for many years,” he said.

Though POAL criticised the Herald last year when it reproduced images of the proposed Ports expansion, Mr Swney said, it had now been learnt that the expansions to be presented to Council on 16 April are almost identical to the Herald images.

“POAL’s own plans confirm that valuable Waitemata views will be blocked,” he said. “The latest expansion blueprint is nothing more than last year’s plan in drag.”

If Aucklanders were concerned a year ago, Mr Swney concluded, they should be equally concerned this year.

“It’s not complicated: all we are asking is that Council stop the process in its tracks tomorrow and get the report it requested of Council officers back then,” he said. “Fortified with this we can then all make an informed decision of the true costs of these plans.”

ENDS

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