The Mapp Report 1 July 2005
Wairau Park Pak N Save Succumbs To The RMA
The recent ruling in the High Court against the resource consent of a new Pak N Save supermarket in Wairau Park
highlights the serious need for reform of the Resource Management Act and the Land Transport legislation.
Foodstuffs, the owners of the Pak 'N' Save, applied in January to the North Shore City Council for a consent to build a
supermarket on Wairau Road. After a panel of five independent commissioners considered the application, they granted the
application for Foodstuffs on a non notified business, and work began on the site. There was an appeal to the High Court
by Progressive Enterprise against the decision by the North Shore City Council
The Judge granted the appeal and all work has ceased on the site. In his decision, Justice Baragwanath said the council
should have waited for the full results of investigations by Transit NZ. Transit, in an affidavit in support of
Progressive Enterprises, said they needed more time to reassess 'deficiencies in the traffic reports to date.' The only
relevant road owned by Transit is the Northern Motorway.
The effect of the decision is that not only does an applicant have to get resource consent from the local council, they
also have to think how the development will affect the motorway system. Is this reasonable, when the developer has
already consulted with the appropriate authorities?
Foodstuffs had been trying for 18 years to get a supermarket built in Wairau Road. In my view, it is quite unreasonable
for a developer in an urban and commercial area to have to worry about how they might impact the motorway system. It
should be enough that they seek resource consent from the proper territorial authority concerned - in this case, the
North Shore City Council.
The National Party believes that the Resource Management Act needs major reform. It should not be able to be used by
competitors to block developments, nor should Transit NZ effectively about act as consenting authority on top of the
local territorial authority. That is why National will reform the RMA in the first 12 months of taking office, and put
an end to the madness once and for all.
Unions Funding Labour's Political Campaign
The union movement are once again doing themselves no favours. Last week, they launched a blatantly anti-National
political campaign, using wildly inaccurate information about National's employment policy.
The brochure is marketed by the Council of Trade Unions, but it may as well have been produced by the Labour Party. The
PSA, in a recent editorial, says that as National has 'pledged to slash job cuts' then the choice at the election 'has
become a lot clearer'. 'The success and well-being of the union - and that is all of us - rests on the re-election of a
Labour government'.
It is yet more evidence of the 'machine' that John Tamihere says is being driven by the ninth floor of the Beehive, in a
desperate effort to retain power.
Union bosses are using union funds to run the Labour party campaign. Not only does this remove choice from union members
as to their political affiliation, it ruins whatever credibility unions may still have in the process.
As long as the union movement continues to live in the past, and refuses to discuss employment policy produced by
National and others with a rational, open mind, then they will be doing their members a great disservice in the future
when they try and negotiate with a National-led government.
ENDS