al's dunedin Blog Moving To Wordpress

This blog is moving from Google Blogger to Wordpress.

Google Blogger is a great system and I recommend it to anyone wanting to start a blog.

But Wordpress is more advanced and allows a lot more customisation, which will enable me to do what I want with this blog, and develop some new skills in the process.

The new address will be:

dunedinBlog.co.nz/al

Users will have to update their RSS feeds.

The old address:

al.dunedinBlog.co.nz

will still work.

Council Staff responsible if recycling target not met

The ODT reports that Dunedin residents may have rates increases if they do not increase recycling when the new recycling scheme comes in.

If there are rates increases because the budgeted target for the new recycling plan are not met, then it is the responsibility of the Council staff who planned this project. They were told that large wheelie bins were not suitable for many Dunedin properties because of space and access issues. Many people will chose the medium-size wheelie-bin. And many more will stop recycling all-together because the option of a small bin was removed from the new recycling scheme.

See also this thread on Whatif?

Harland Still Keeping Carisbrook Valuation Secret

In a reply to a Letter to the ODT Editor by Dick Donaldson, Dunedin City Council chief executive said:

Unless the new council decides to do something different following the public consultation earlier this year, its annual plan indicates that in 2011-12 it intends selling Carisbrook. If the Council
confirms its decision to sell after the ORFU has vacated the site, it will want to obtain the best price it can get.
Disclosure of a current valuation (a three-year-old rating valuation may not be relevant) during the selling process would prejudice the council’s ability to secure the best price. Those who have bought and sold their own homes will understand the principle. Selling the property is a commercial transaction — disclosure of a valuation would undermine the council’s negotiating position, potentially imposing extra costs on ratepayers. In the end, of course, the value will be what the market says it is worth.

This is nonsense: if a homeowner has a good valuation, then he is will advertise it to try and obtain this price. I am sure the the DCC would be more than happy to get back the $7 million that we have paid for the Carisbrook properties.

But it seems the valuation is conditional. Ex-mayor Chin described it as a:

valuation of the current and future values across a range of land uses

I take this to mean:

it might be worth this much so time in the future if the zoning was changed.

Pro-Stadium Group Remains On Council

After the election, a 7-strong pro-stadium group remains on the Dunedin City Council. These are:

• Acklin
• Hudson
• Noone
• Weatherall
• Bezett
• Collins
• Brown
  

They form half of the 14 member Council, not counting Mayor Dave Cull.
Voted out were ex-Mayor Peter Chin, Michael Guest, and Richard Walls.
Newly elected Councillors are:

• Richard Thomson: well-known for his service on the District Health Board, so he has experience of working with public-service bureaucracy. But he failed badly in allowing Michael Swann's massive fraud to go on for so long. I hope that he has learned from this experience.
• Jinty MacTavish: well known for her "Green" credentials, but has almost no experience of the real world. A vocal proponent of the Global Warming scare. Unfortunately for her, this position is becoming increasing hard to defend as global temperatures have not increased as predicted.
• Lee Vandervis: makes a welcome return to the Council as a forceful advocate of reduced Council spending. At least there is now someone on who will not be afraid to ask the hard questions.
  

Dave Cull's strategy, of trying to get a majority on the Council by running a slate of candidates under the Greater Dunedin banner, has not worked. The only new Greater Dunedin Councillors, Thomson and McTavish, were already well known. Rather than voting for the slate, people have voted for familiar names such as radio announcer, Neil Collins, and entertainer, Bill Acklin.
It is going to be interesting to see how hard Dave Cull is going "Slash Operating Costs", whether the newly-elected Council will vote for this.

Waitati Trains Are Not Sustainable

Day-trippers had a pleasant train excursion today, but it is ludicrous to suggest that a regular train service to Waitati is sustainable. Trains are only sustainable when large numbers of people want to travel on the same route at the same time, which certainly is not the case here. Commuters want to travel at different times and few work within walking distance of the Railway Station.
And why is the Council funding an event for the Get The Train political group, which was being used to promote "green" candidates in the current election campaign?

Forsyth Barr and South Canterbury Finance

Well-respected independent stockbroker, Chris Lee, has written a newsletter with interesting comment about the role of Forsyth Barr (of Forsyth Barr Stadium fame) in the demise of South Canterbury Finance. Note that it is the New Zealand taxpayer who will suffer the losses in SCF's collapse, just as it is the Dunedin rate-payer who will bear the cost of the Stadium.

Vote For Lee Vandervis

My recommendation to those Dunedin voters concerned about the high spending, high debt and high rates of the City Council:

Vote For Lee Vandervis

Lee has consistently spoken out about these issues, and would be a valuable voice for frugality on the Council. He is unlikely to be voted in as Mayor, but under STV there is no risk in marking him as No 1 on the voting paper.

Dave Cull and the Greater Dunedin team would be an improvement on the old guard of Councillors, but seem equivocal in their commitments to making the savings required.