End of Day 3 and I think all the scheduled friends have spoken.
Observations and anecdotes:
Commissioner Taylor was a big disappointment. We felt he was soft on the applicant and his questions to us seemed designed to trap us or put words in our mouth. We wondered if MCBRT were sending questions to Council to put in front of Commissioners (a legitimate tactic), but some of them were personal - he asked Fiona Bibby whether she still lived in Mapua (she lives in Dawson Rd)
He was very tough on Jenn, our recreation expert, but she was up to the task and knew a lot more about her area than he did. He even had a go at Sally on some point of procedure but she swatted him away. We concluded he was just another sexist boatie
I had a bit of a tussle with him. He wondered if, as a recent resident, my views would be different if I'd lived here as long as the boat people. I said "that's what they say". He quickly backed out "I wasn't meaning to imply your opinion isn't equally valid blah blah", and I said "sounded pretty close to that"
I read Jeff Quartly and Peter Paterson's submissions. At one point i added some numbers to Peter's and was called out by their walrus mustached lawyer who said that I had to stick to the script.
I then got to a bit that was in my own voice so I asked the Commissioner if I would be allowed to read it. She said no, because it was Peter's submission and they'd heard from me. Walrus asked for it be struck from the record. Which was ironic because the paragraph was about MCBRT bullying. Here it is:
If I may leave Peter’s voice for a moment, I wish to recount a salient example: my wife and I were at the waterfront after your visit and as we were leaving a prominent romper came towards. My wife expressed opposition in salty fashion, stressed after spending all day on a submission she resented having to write. His response was ‘great for the community’ and either Frankie or I muttered ‘yeah right’. To which he replied ‘but not if you're NIMBYs’ and I turned and said ‘really?’. He said ‘when you’ve lived here longer you’ll understand’. A hollow slogan plus an insult and a discrediting dismissal. Peter called it the trifecta.
The Chair observed that Friends seemed to be very well organised as each speaker had their own particular angle which was very useful. This is credit to the work of Sally Gepp and Kate Mitchell (btw we are still short of our our funding target for Sally. If you'd seen her in operation you would have gone up to her and asked if she took EFTPOS. She was just superb. And there's still time to donate to the Givealittle page or direct to Friends 38 9026 0312564 00
Movements
Traffic guy Gary Clark turned up on Monday with a whole new proposal about how to handle the traffic, using pinpads and queuing lanes in Kite Park with parking for 65 trailers. This threw a number of their experts right off their game - they had to keep referring to the fact that they hadn't had time to update their submission but this is what they were going to say.
But the biggest movement was Mike Kininmoth (the 'prominent ramper' referred to above). They asked to make a personal submission and Clare stated that they had not seen the proposed traffic flows until Monday and they wanted it on record as objecting (they still want the ramp), or at least a different traffic management system as a condition because the fence would obstruct their view and the early morning noise would be a disruption. A literal NIMBY!
We could also see Commissioners exploring whether a single-laned ramp would be more acceptable. All our speakers made the point that the traffic was only one dimension, and our objection is to any ramp at the Waterfront Park.
That was how I saw it, would love others to comment from their perspective. Sonja Lani you're probably exhausted from typing the proceedings as we went, but you had some interesting observations you might like to share.
I think everyone who spoke was conscious of the support and encouragement of the people following online and everyone else who has stood up against this project. On behalf of all those who spoke, thank you for that. Win or lose, we put up a good case.
I'm about to head to the Appleshed for a celebratory drink after a big day at the office - hopefully I will see you there.
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