Mosgiel (2015): Destroyed community beautification project —a development

Received.
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 at 2:27 p.m.

█ Message: The community board had a choice (2007) of which side of the road the footpath should go; and they chose to destroy the railway beautification project. Please note who the primary mover was. None other than Lester Harvey who received awards and whatever else for the beautification project. Surely he would’ve been the prime mover for the footpath to have been on the other side of the road (??), to preserve the beautification project that he claimed as his own.

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AGENDA FOR A MEETING OF THE MOSGIEL TAIERI COMMUNITY BOARD TO BE HELD IN THE DOWNES ROOM, MOSGIEL SERVICE CENTRE ON WEDNESDAY, 27 NOVEMBER 1999, COMMENCING AT 4.00 PM – ma_mtcb_m_2007_09_19.pdf

Click to access ma_mtcb_m_2007_09_19.pdf

Item 7. of the agenda makes interesting reading.

Otago 150th Anniversary plantings scraped away at Gladstone Road

Related Posts and Comments:
26.3.15 DESTROYED, beautification project —two totally different stories
20.3.15 DESTROYED, beautification project —Railway corridor, Gladstone Road

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image supplied.

Significant tree: 28 Argyle Street Mosgiel – LUC-2015-296

As a community board member and a businessman-resident, Martin Dillon, it seems, has set a precedent for removal of (District Plan listed) Significant Trees from the streets of Mosgiel township. Not only this, his community board supports the destruction of many community-established trees at Mosgiel’s Memorial Gardens – to make way for a new swimming pool complex. Earlier this year the community board was ultimately responsible for destruction of the community’s beautification scheme at Gladstone Road (railway corridor).
That’s one hell of a lot of greenery you’ve seen wiped off the planet, Mr Dillon.
SHAME ON YOU

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ANOTHER APPLICATION FOR REMOVAL – A COPPER BEECH THIS TIME
The tree is prettier than the freaking house beside it.

Significant tree – 28 Argyle Street Mosgiel – LUC-2015-296
Closes: 28/08/2015
Notification of Application for a Resource Consent – Under Section 93(2) of the Resource Management Act 1991.
The Dunedin City Council has received the following application for Resource Consent:

Application description
To remove a tree that is listed in the Dunedin City District Plan under Schedule 25.3 as T151 (Copper Beech).

Application documents
● LUC-2015-296 – Public notice (PDF, 34.6 KB)
This document is the Public Notice for Resource Consent application LUC-2015-296

● LUC-2015-296 – Submission 13 form (PDF, 78.2 KB)
This document can be used to make a submission regarding Resource Consent application LUC-2015-296

● LUC-2015-296 – Application (PDF, 530.0 KB)
This document is a scanned copy of the application for resource consent LUC-2015-296

Notified resource consent details
Closing date: 28/08/2015
Consent number: Significant tree – 28 Argyle Street Mosgiel – LUC-2015-296

Name of applicant: M J Sproule & J A Maxwell

Location of site: 28 Argyle Street, Mosgiel, being that land legally described as Lot 3 Deposited Plan, 470637 held in Computer Freehold Register 636380

Address for service: M J Sproule & J A Maxwell, 34A Ayr Street, Mosgiel 9024

Online submissions: Online submission form

█ http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/council-online/notified-resource-consents/current-consultation/significant-tree-28-argyle-street-Mosgiel

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LUC-2015-296 [excerpts from application]

█ DCC on Significant Trees
█ Dunedin City District Plan — Schedule 25.3 Significant Trees (PDF, 275.6 KB)

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Related Posts and Comments:
24.7.15 Hands off Mosgiel Memorial Gardens
20.3.15 DESTROYED, beautification project —Railway corridor, Gladstone Road
14.12.14 Significant Tree: 23 Church St, Mosgiel [Applicant: M L & M C Dillon]
15.5.14 Significant Tree: 28A Heriot Row
22.2.13 DCC: Significant Trees

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Design alternatives to (pre-selected) bridge not canvassed by DCC

GOODBYE to Rattray St VIEW Shaft from Queens Gardens to the waterside.

HELLO to other serious impediments to unique and very significant harbourside cultural heritage and landscape values at the planned city.

Here is another DCC-inspired critically dead PLONK OBJECT.
An overhead rail bridge. Who gains.

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DCC files: Harbourside connector Rattray Fryatt Streets [click to enlarge]

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It looks innocuous, nothing to scare the horses. A simple sling over the tracks at an estimated a cost of “about $3 million”.

What’s the fuss? Ahhh well.
The history of political deception through use of loose architectural sketches is tied (here as anywhere) to DCC departmental reports and estimates that hardly ever approximate REAL cost. Multiply by two.

Then the idea that the “hotel” is back on the drawing boards, if not a screw-us invitation to Asian investment for the south side.

By all means let’s escalate this (an idea) – the tame little cheapie bridge (pictured above, significantly downplayed structurally as a pencil mark) is another potential rort in the grand family of Council rorts that includes the Stadium*, Centre for High Performance Sport*, Carisbrook*, Dunedin Town Hall Redevelopment*, Citifleet*, City Forests*, Delta investments (severally)*, Cycle Network et al, and very probably the proposed Mosgiel pool if it gains traction for Taieri property speculators. For each, an independent forensic audit isn’t out of the question – for ratepayer ‘information’ that could depose the Council in favour of a Commissioner, presupposing later redress at Court. Visit resort to the *Crimes Act. Now, there’s a ‘visitor strategy’ for Dunedin !!

Meekly, more circumspectly (after all, it was just an idea, a stretch), those of us trained in architectural rendering and graphics as well as contemporary design philosophy of the marketplace know the tricks intimately; we’re not above exploiting them for a quick buck and a further string of new jobs by secret handshake.

Lucky for some, each deal at Dunedin (with links to Queenstown and Auckland if via Christchurch lawyers and accountants) can be sown up by a very small number of predatory boys. The same list we’ve had on our backburner books tracing the Stadium debacle —beginning to rise apparent at the ODT front page of Friday, 22 May 2015. An intriguing warning shot.

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But is this right ? Has Dunedin City Council been wowed by just one bridge proposal ? Has DCC in the first place only ever been looking for a bridge —not seeking opportunities for alternatives, such as a designer underpass or an immediately legible automatically controlled crossing at grade, for light vehicle transit as well (shared roads) ?

It’s pretty poor and conflicting if Dunedin City councillors and senior council management have indeed sold out (under a red-carpeted table) to a lone solicited vision of an overhead bridge UNTESTED BY PROFESSIONAL COMPETITION – another signature WHITE model, to augment those other visions in WHITE for ORC sites at the Steamer Basin —nicely, satisfyingly calculated by that little list of club players.

It’s not hard to imagine that this mere slip of a concrete and steel flyover, is an “enlightenment” carrying the City re-brand. A cause célèbre for ego-fired DCC infidels and speculator man-pals. The very people who can’t bear to endure sage, conservative, long-term economic modelling for Dunedin, taking the city and region through 10 to 50 years of solid management to ensure business diversity and job creation. No, they prefer ad hoc spurts and short-term squander plans (how manly, even when couched as the soft-illustrated 2011 Central City Plan FFS).

Where, for this crossing, is the city council’s reasonably time-lined, broadly advertised, professional design competition with clearly expressed intent to utilise open tendering methods for architectural design, engineering and construction ??

TO SAVE US FROM COI’S AND RORTS.

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The Otago Daily Times has learned the bridge is among only a few New Zealand projects vying for the next allocation from the Urban Cycleway Fund.

### ODT Online Thu, 28 May 2015
Bridge on funding short list
By Chris Morris
A multimillion-dollar bridge linking Dunedin’s inner city and waterfront has been short-listed for Government funds. […] An announcement is expected next month, and, if successful, the bridge could be considered for construction over the next three years.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DESTROYED, beautification project —two totally different stories

Taieri Herald 6.5.97 (page 6) – Re: Gladstone Road railway corridor, Mosgiel
[click to enlarge]

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### dunedintv.co.nz March 26, 2015 – 7:01pm
Nightly interview: Lester Harvey
The removal of plants and shrubs from the Gladstone Road railway corridor has angered some Mosgiel residents. Lester Harvey has spent years co-ordinating beautification efforts in the area, and hopes a meeting with KiwiRail will lead to a positive outcome.
Video

█ What if? fathoms that some strong politics care of DCC/ex-DCC/Community Board/KiwiRail is putting Lester Harvey in the spotlight. Not terribly nice being fall guy for the under-table politicians involved.

Gladstone Road, Mosgiel – minus Community plantings/beautification project.
Photos: Brian Miller

Related Post and Comments:
20.3.15 DESTROYED, beautification project —Railway corridor, Gladstone Road

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DESTROYED, beautification project —Railway corridor, Gladstone Road

Updated post Sat, 21 Mar 2015 at 11:55 p.m.
Brian Miller makes further comment, see below. More photographs.

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Received from Brian Miller
Fri, 20 Mar 2015 at 4:29 p.m.

VANDALISM —Nothing else goes near describing what is in this photo.
Let me start from the start.

Otago 150th Anniversary plantings scraped away at Gladstone Rd.

1997
As a Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board member I accepted the challenge of beautifying the railway corridor from Wingatui to Riccarton Road along a four-kilometre length of Gladstone Road. No other board member wanted anything to do with it, until I had it organised ready to go. They said. “It couldn’t be done.” Just the incentive I needed.

I had to make sure that all the boxes were ticked, before Tranz Rail would let the project begin. With that done, Board members fell over themselves to get involved.

Thousands of hours of voluntary labour went into the project. Alex Griffin and his Taskforce Green did most of the hard work. The local community donated the use of trucks and other equipment, while Lester Harvey ferreted out the thousands of shrubs. We turned what was an eyesore entry into Mosgiel into what it is today. A more welcoming entry. Unfortunately, the story does not end there.

As I said earlier we met all Tranz Rail’s requirements when we did our planting.

Just imagine how I felt this morning when I travelled along the section from Riccarton Road towards the industrial area, and the destruction of the thousands of hours of voluntary labour and gifted plants that had been ripped out. Total destruction of this section of the project. It appears to be at the orders of KiwiRail. The photo tells the story I really don’t have to say much more.

I wonder how those Task Force Green workers and other unemployed workers feel to see what they had contributed to the Mosgiel community, in part, being ripped up.

KiwiRail weren’t the first to vandalise this project, the Dunedin City Council had first crack and destroyed over half of this area by putting in the footpath that you can see in the photo. When they could have quite easily put the footpath on the other side of the road. This would have made it much safer for the school children of East Taieri, as they wouldn’t have had to cross the road twice as they do now to get to school.

The Community Board made this project part of the Otago 150 years’ celebrations. There has been a Fonterra Environmental award, The Queens Service Medal award, and Keep Dunedin Beautiful Awards for this project, but it appears that hasn’t stopped the vandalism.

[ends]

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█ What if? Dunedin notes this has happened on Cr Kate Wilson’s watch (Cr Wilson has been appointed to Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board as the DCC representative). It seems incumbent on DCC and ORC to seek a compensatory amount from KiwiRail for instatement of a new Community Project in the immediate area taking into account the devastating loss of the local community’s green amenity, historical investment of effort to establish the plantings in a difficult location, and the years of plant growth and cover destroyed.
Clearly, a distress and a humiliation.

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Received from Brian Miller
Sat, 21 Mar 2015 at 6:15 p.m.

Message: The Vandals are on the way.
These new photographs show:
1) The metal plaque confirming that the Railway corridor project was a ‘150 year’ project.
2) The sign up the pole is rather interesting —it shows DCC promoting an illegal activity: riding a bicycle on the footpath. A shared footpath and cycleway…. this is completely opposite to what the Council’s Transportation Planning manager wrote in response to a letter to the editor (ODT 13.11.14). She said in the reply: ‘To clarify, cycling on the footpath is illegal in NZ unless you are a NZ post employee or the bike has a wheel diameter less that 355mm usually a tricycle or small child’s bicycle.’
3) ALL the shrubs and trees for removal at Mosgiel’s Memorial Park on the proposed site of the new pool complex —described in the Taieri Community Facilities Trust’s (the pool trust) documents as “minimal site impact”, located to “minimize the removal of existing vegetation”.

Regards
Brian Miller

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DCC neglects sycamores in reserves —passes control and eradication cost to city residents

Acer pseudoplatanus, the sycamore or sycamore maple, is considered to be invasive in New Zealand and is also considered to be an environmental weed in some parts of Australia.

Acer pseudoplatanus is a species of maple native to Central Europe and Southwestern Asia, from France eastwards to Ukraine, and south in mountains to northern Spain, northern Turkey and the Caucasus, but cultivated and naturalised elsewhere.

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### ODT Online Sun, 15 Feb 2015
DCC prepares for sycamore war
By Dan Hutchinson – The Star
The Dunedin City Council has sycamore trees firmly in its sights as the invasive plant threatens to choke the life out of the town belt. Parks manager Lisa Wheeler said the town belt was becoming “inundated” with fast-growing trees. […] “The town belt is getting inundated again with it. Leith Valley, through the university … over the next few years you are going to see an increase in seedlings coming through.” She said the council had done a small mapping exercise in the West Harbour where there was a big problem with the trees and would now look to work with community groups and residents throughout the city.
Read more

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“A ghastly mass of stumps and branches, rampant ivy, aluminium weed, blackberry and sycamore saplings” had been left behind.
–Pat Petersen, concerned resident

### ODT Online Sun, 15 Feb 2015
Bush clearing work upsets resident
By John Gibb
Recent tree cutting and pruning operations on tracks near Jubilee Park have destroyed “magical bush walks” there, Dunedin resident Pat Petersen says. Mrs Petersen (79), who has lived near the Belleknowes park for the past 48 years and is a regular walker of nearby tracks in the Town Belt, said she was “very upset” by the continuing work. […] She said “swathes” of broad-leafed coprosma, rangiora and, to a lesser extent, five-finger and karamu had recently been “cut and slashed” beside the bush walks.
Read more

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Earlier….

### ODT Online Tue, 14 May 2013
Sycamores in the firing line
By Debbie Porteous
Sycamore trees are in the crosshairs of Dunedin city councillors, who have asked council staff to identify the implications of registering them as a noxious plant. Councillors also supported, in principle, initiatives to control and eradicate the trees on all public land, including roadsides and rail corridors. The decision was taken by councillors considering the 2013-14 annual plan.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: delphinium.co.nz – Kereru (New Zealand native wood pigeon) resting in sycamore tree

Port Otago Ltd + Chalmers Properties

Port Otago has been chosen as the Otago Daily Times Business of the Year

###ODT Online Sat, 27 Dec 2014
Buoyant through the changing tides
By Simon Hartley
Undeterred by the 2007-09 global financial crisis, Port Otago has successfully navigated its way through tough times to deliver 100% owner the Otago Regional Council more than $50 million in dividends during the past five years alone. Simon Hartley talks to Port Otago chief executive Geoff Plunket about its performance and contribution during the past decade.
Port Otago goes into 2015 in fine financial shape, with tens of millions of dollars in development under way, staff numbers increasing and the company optimistic about new developments.
Its subsidiary Chalmers Properties, which oversees a portfolio valued at $260 million, has $20 million to invest, and a separate “inland port” at Mosgiel could be up and running by 2017, as could more Sawyers Bay warehousing – all in all, an average annual capital expenditure of $10 million for each year over the next decade.
Read more

Inland port by 2017, Sawyers Bay developments – TIME TO GET SHUNTING OFF THE SECTION OF MAIN TRUNK LINE THAT PREVENTS HARBOUR ACCESS via Rattray and Fryatt Streets. Restore the controlled pedestrian, cycle and vehicle crossing at grade.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: theblackthornorphans.com – container stack, Port Otago; staticflickr.com – container terminal

Bradken keen to sell Tewsley Street premises

### dunedintv.co.nz November 17, 2014 – 6:25pm
Bradken’s move to Hillside Workshops foundry delayed
It’s been two years since Bradken announced it would move its Dunedin operations to the Hillside Workshops foundry. But the global company seems unable to sell its long-time premises in Tewsley Street. Bradken signed a five-year agreement with KiwiRail to lease the Hillside foundry. It planned to move its entire operation to the site, and expand capacity. Some workers have moved to Hillside, and the foundry’s been marked with the Bradken logo. But the company’s Tewsley Street premises remain open and on the market. Bradken’s been in Tewsley Street for almost 50 years.
Ch39 Link

Bradken Resources Pty Ltd, Mason St frontage (detail) | Derek Smith 2003

ODT articles:
25.1.13 Bradken tight-lipped over Hillside move
22.5.13 Bradken on the move
8.6.13 Bradken’s foundry site likely to be divided
5.7.13 Final day at Hillside
7.8.13 4-day week as Kiwi Rail tender lost
8.8.13 Otago unemployment up 37% on year ago
14.8.13 Bradken earnings down at $A183.6m
21.12.13 Rally helps keep Hillside hopes alive
29.12.13 Bradken staff back on five-day week

DCC Webmap – Bradken, 2 Tewsley Street, Harbourside [click to enlarge]

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### dunedntv.co.nz November 14, 2014 – 7:02pm
Nightly interview: Des Adamson
There’s been good and bad news for the Dunedin business sector recently, with the closure of some operations and expansion of others. Des Adamson is the manager of economic development at Enterprise Dunedin, and he’s here to tell us about the state of business in the city. Video

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*In 2003 photographer Derek Smith generously shared two DVDs of Dunedin images he had made, for my use in heritage advocacy. These include industrial and commercial subjects.

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building: Looking round at potential

Updated post Wed, 3 Mar 2015 at 2:39 p.m.

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building, built in stages between 1872 and 1885. Historical building and harbour views (1925) before the addition of the concrete top storey with saw-tooth roof in 1929, the space now proposed for residential use. Details from photographs reproduced in Trapeznik’s book Dunedin’s Warehouse Precinct, pp 34 & 68 [Hocken Collections]

31-33 Wharf Street, proximity to Steamer Basin and Chinese Garden
[Google Streetview 2013]

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ODT 29.8.14 (page 12)

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building with forecourt of Chinese Garden, from Rattray Street. [Elizabeth Kerr]

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### ODT Online Fri, 29 Aug 2014
DCC to foot apartments consent bill
By Debbie Porteous
The Dunedin City Council is footing the bill to process the consent required for the development of the former Loan and Mercantile Building in the harbourside area. But the chairman of the panel deciding whether to grant consent to convert the building to apartments says the historic agreement has no bearing on the decision. The no fee arrangement is the result of a council resolution dated September 2011, in which the council agreed any resource consent required for the development and use of the building at 33 Thomas Burns St should be processed at no cost to the applicant. The resolution was part of a suite of agreements resulting from the mediation process that resolved appeals to Plan Change 7: Dunedin Harbourside.
Read more

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Building details [Google Streetview 2013] – The NZ Loan and Mercantile Building, originally known as the Otago Wool Stores, was built in 1872 for stock and station agents Driver Stewart and Co. Heritage New Zealand lists the construction professionals as Walter Bell, Robert Arthur Lawson, and Mason & Wales Architects Ltd. According to Trapeznik, William Mason was the architect responsible for the plainer part of the complex in the early 1870s. RA Lawson designed the right-hand corner extension in 1880, with additions in 1883 and 1885.

█ More photos here.

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Related Posts and Comments:
18.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building #randomsmartphonepix (interiors)
17.8.14 Public Notices: NZ Loan and Mercantile Building… (site tour, hearing)
13.8.14 Chamber’s Own Goals —Heritage (letters)
11.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (audio)
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…
18.3.14 Dunedin Harbourside: English Heritage on portside development
21.10.13 Harbourside: Access to a revamped Steamer Basin has public backing

█ For more on Dunedin’s Harbourside and Plan Change 7, enter the term *harbourside* in the search box at right.

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (b. 1872-85), next to the former W. Gregg & Co. coffee factory (b. 1878) and the Wharf Hotel established circa 1880
[Google Streetview 2013]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

● NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. Ltd Building – mention by Alexander Trapeznik in Dunedin’s Warehouse Precinct at http://www.genrebooks.co.nz/ebooks/DunedinsWarehousePrecinct.pdf (2014) pp66-71

● W. Gregg & Co. coffee factory and store, Fryatt St – mention by blogger David Murray at http://builtindunedin.com/2014/02/17/thomas-bedford-cameron-architect/

● Wharf Hotel – mention by Frank Tod in Pubs Galore: History of Dunedin Hotels 1848-1984 (Dunedin: Historical Publications, 1984) p61

█ Peter Entwisle recently researched the history and significance of the NZ Loan and Mercantile Building, and presented his findings in evidence to hearing for the application (scanned):
LUC-2014-259 History and Heritage Significance of the NZL&MA Building 19.8.14 (PDF, 2 MB)

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NZ Loan and Mercantile Building #randomsmartphonepix

Updated post 19.8.14 at 9:21 p.m.

Land Use Consent: LUC-2014-259
31 & 33 Thomas Burns Street, Dunedin
New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building

█ Consent Hearing reconvenes — Wednesday 20 Aug at 2:00 PM
ALL WELCOME | Edinburgh Room, Municipal Chambers, The Octagon

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Related Posts and Comments:
17.8.14 Public Notices: NZ Loan and Mercantile Building…
13.8.14 Chamber’s Own Goals —Heritage (letters)
11.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (audio)
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…

█ For more, enter the terms *loan and mercantile* or *harbourside* in the search box at right.

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Post and images by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: Public site tour held on Monday afternoon, 18 August 2014 – hosted by building owner Russell Lund in association with Stewart Hansen of the Wharf Hotel (50 participants)

Public Notices: NZ Loan and Mercantile Building #SiteTour #ConsentHearing

Land Use Consent: LUC-2014-259
31 & 33 Thomas Burns Street, Dunedin
New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building

█ Consent Hearing — Tuesday 19 August at 9:00 AM
Edinburgh Room, Municipal Chambers, The Octagon

█ DCC Planner’s Report (PDF, 4 MB)

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Related Posts and Comments:
13.8.14 Chamber’s Own Goals —Heritage (letters)
11.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (audio)
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…

█ For more, enter the terms *loan and mercantile* or *harbourside* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: wikimedia.org – NZ Loan and Mercantile Building by Ben C Hill for New Zealand Historic Places Trust

Chamber’s Own Goals —Heritage

Peter McIntyre and John Christie from the Otago Chamber of Commerce had lots to say about the rejuvenation of Dunedin’s heritage fabric and the city’s “vibrancy” after their trip to Portland, Oregon in 2011. What they said then is directly contradicted by the Chamber’s submission on the application for resource consent to redevelop the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Building (31-33 Thomas Burns Street) for residential use.

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█ Full annotated copy | CoC Own Goals – Heritage (PDF 1.51 MB)

Related Posts and Comments:
11.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (audio)
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…

█ For more, enter the terms *loan and mercantile* or *harbourside* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building

### radionz.co.nz Mon, 11 Aug 2014
Radio New Zealand National – Jim Mora with The Panel
The Panel with Michael Deaker and Sue Wells (Part 1) ( 23′ 8″ )
16:07 Topics – we’ve heard from the doctors union the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists that 42 per cent of our senior doctors now qualified overseas. [discussion starts at 14:50 minutes in] The grand old New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Building in downtown Dunedin, developer Russell Lund wants to restore this category two building dating from 1872 and create a 24-unit apartment complex but there is significant opposition due to noise concerns.
Audio | Downloads: Ogg MP3

█ http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel

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Land Use Consent: LUC-2014-259
31 & 33 Thomas Burns Street, Dunedin
New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building

█ DCC Planner’s Report (PDF, 4 MB)

Related Post and Comments:
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…

█ For more, enter the terms *loan and mercantile* or *harbourside* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: wikimedia.org – NZ Loan and Mercantile Building by Ben C Hill for New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand)

Roading network screwed by council staff

█ UNDEMOCRATIC—Council staff agendas are directing major changes to Dunedin’s road networks. Continued use of exclusive ‘workshops’ lacks transparency and accountability.

Cr Hilary Calvert asks ‘why councillors were not more involved in developing the strategic cases’. (ODT)

Cr Lee Vandervis says ‘the problems identified were based on ”absurd or probably false” assumptions’. (ODT)

STAFF ASSUMPTIONS
► There is too much parking in Dunedin
► Restricted parking will increase use of public transport
► Encouraging more people to cycle makes roads safer

### ODT Online Tue, 6 May 2014
Council notes roading strategic cases
By Debbie Porteous
The first step towards securing funding for major changes to Dunedin’s road networks has been taken by the Dunedin City Council, even though exactly what those changes will be is yet to be decided. Councillors yesterday noted council staff had taken the first of six steps in a new process for applying for funding from the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA).
Read more

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█ Strategic Case Development for Improvements to Dunedin’s Central City and Freight Network
Report – ISC – 05/05/2014 (PDF, 993.6 KB)

Excerpts from the report…

Council staff have recently submitted two Strategic Case applications to the NZ Transport Agency; one for investment to improve the access, mobility and safety of the Central City; and the other to enhance Dunedin’s Freight Network. Pending approval from the NZTA, Council staff will begin the Programme Business Case stage, where investment options and alternatives will begin to be developed and defined. Staff will seek Councillor support and input prior to the submission of the Programme Business Case to the NZ Transport Agency, anticipated to be later this year.

The NZ Transport Agency has recently adopted a Better Business Case approach to guide the planning and project development for investment applications. It is a principles-based approach that clearly links their investment goals to outcomes, and defines problems and their consequences thoroughly before solutions are considered. This approach ensures a shared view of problems and benefits early in the transport planning process. The business case approach encourages early engagement with stakeholders to confirm:
● fit with strategy and need to invest
● the way forward with short-listed options
● that the best value option is affordable and deliverable and that the risks are acceptable.

To execute many of the projects outlined in Dunedin’s Integrated Transport Strategy requires funding from external sources. A significant source of transportation funding is potentially available from the NZ Transport Agency. As detailed above, Council must now apply for funding from the NZ Transport Agency through their Better Business Case approach. This stepped approach ensures that any solutions are in response to clearly defined problems, and are aligned to the NZ Transport Agency’s investment goals.

Council staff held initial discussions with key stakeholders, the NZ Transport Agency and the Otago Regional Council to define the areas of focus for investment. The group agreed that the Council should focus on establishing two Strategic Cases: 1. Dunedin Central City: Access, Mobility and Safety; 2. Dunedin Freight Network. These areas strongly align with those set out in our Integrated Transport Strategy.

The first step of establishing the Strategic Case is to develop an Investment Logic Map (ILM). The ILMs set out the key problems and the benefits of solving the problems. Two ILM workshops were hosted for each of the areas of focus. Participants included the key stakeholders (DCC staff, Council Committee Chairs – Cr Wilson, Cr Benson-Pope, Cr McTavish; NZ Transport Agency and the ORC) and relevant partner organisations (including Otago Chamber of Commerce, Public Health South, Port Otago Ltd, Kiwirail, and Heavy Haulage Association).

[see ILMs for each Strategic Case at Attachment 1]

…

Strategic Case – Executive Summary
Staff from the Dunedin City Council (DCC), the NZ Transport Agency and Otago Regional Council (ORC), as well as the Public Health Service and the Otago Chamber of Commerce participated in two Investment Logic Mapping (ILM) workshops to identify the key access, mobility and safety problems in central Dunedin, and determine the benefits of investing in solutions that address these problems.

This report sets out the strategic case for improving access, mobility and safety in central Dunedin. Part A provides the strategic context and fit of the proposed investment and the evidence to support the justification for investment. Part B describes how the three contributing organisations intend to develop the next stage of business planning – the programme business case. This section outlines the further planning needed to achieve the identified benefits.

This application shows that that there are some key synergies between the strategies and objectives of the three key stakeholder organisations, where priorities for future investment align. Evidence supporting each of the key problems identified in the ILM workshops is outlined section 3.4, and reveals a strong case for change and need for investment.

…

3.1 Defining the Problem
Dunedin City Council convened a facilitated investment logic mapping workshop that was held on 10th February 2014, with key stakeholders to gain a better understanding of current issues and business needs. The stakeholder panel identified and agreed to the following key problems:

Problem one: SH1, the railway and north/south arterial routes bisect areas of high pedestrian use resulting in dislocation and poor connectivity of key areas

Problem two: The design, use and management of central city routes results in intermodal conflict

Problem three: Management and provision of car parking is not integrated into the transport network, which favours car use, impacting adversely on the quality of life in the City

Problem four: The design, management and lack of integration of public transport discourages use and leads to low patronage

[see the Investment Logic Map at Appendix A]

…

3.2 The Benefits of Investment
The potential benefits of successfully investing to address these were identified as part of a second facilitated investment logic mapping held on 17th February, 2014. The stakeholder panel identified and agreed the following potential benefits for the proposal: (CONFIRM)

● Benefit one: Reduced severance
● Benefit two: Improved safety
● Benefit three: Central City is a ‘nice place to be’
● Benefit four: Greater resilience

[see Benefit Map at Appendix B]

…

Figure 1: High risk areas identified through risk mapping

A risk assessment process known as KiwiRAP maps the collective crash risk of roads based on the physical and operating characteristics of intersections and corridors, as well as crash history. The map shows that Dunedin’s high risk areas (shown in black and red) are predominantly located within the central city, as demonstrated in Figure 1.

…

4 Strategic Context
This section demonstrates how the investment proposal has clear linkages to existing strategies of each of the stakeholders. There are some key synergies between the three organisations, where priorities for future investment align. A summary of the strategies that support this investment proposal from each of the stakeholders is detailed below. The goals and/or objectives selected are those with direct relevance to this investment proposal.

…

6.4 Scope
The evidence to support the three problem statements developed during the Investment Logic Mapping workshops generally provides a strong case for change. It is also evident that many of the problems have existed for some time as many of the issues raised were recognised in the MWH 2003 Strategic Corridor Study and the 2006 Transport Strategy.

…

7.1 Risk/Issues and Opportunities
Key risks for this business case are likely to include:
● Alignment with Regional Land Transport Plan and Council’s Long Term Plan Timeframes
● Ability for Council to raise funding co-contribution
● Support for the projects from Councillors
● Support for the projects from the community
● Further deaths and serious injuries from crashes should the project not proceed
Appropriate risk management strategies for these key risks will be identified at the Programme Business Case stage. As the busine ss case evolves and projects are defined it is likely that other risks are likely to be identified and these will be added to the risk register.

Read full report here.

****

█ Dunedin City Integrated Transport Strategy 2013
Developing, maintaining and operating any transport system requires investment, and investment requires decision-making about what to invest in, how much to invest and when that investment should be made. Such decisions need to be informed by an understanding of the key issues and opportunities to be addressed, a clear vision of what is to be achieved, and a clear set of priorities that will move toward that vision. In times of financial constraint when funding is tight the need to clearly identify the right priorities becomes even more important. The DCC have adopted a Financial Strategy which aims to help steer a course between the competing tensions of affordability, keeping up and investing for the future. This Financial Strategy states the limits to rates and borrowing that the Council has set, and any investment in transportation infrastructure must be managed with regard to the Financial Strategy.

Dunedin City Integrated Transport Strategy 2013 [links]
Pre-election Report 2.8.13 [links]
Financial Strategy

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Auckland convention centre and 500 new gaming machines, or Hillside?

State-owned Asset Sale

“A Berl report showed that having the new KiwiRail rolling stock for Auckland built at Hillside would have added $250m to the economy, reduced the current account deficit by $122m and created 1270 jobs. Unfortunately, National insisted that KiwiRail only consider its narrow commercial interests and ignore the wider impacts of its decision.” -Metiria Turei

### ODT Online Thu, 19 Apr 2012
KiwiRail putting Hillside up for sale
By John Lewis
KiwiRail is seeking expressions of interest for the sale of Dunedin’s Hillside Workshops. The business will be advertised for sale as a going concern from early May, 2012 with a final decision due by the end of August, 2012. KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn said the decision was made after analysing the financial impact of the reduction in construction and refurbishment forward work orders for Hillside Workshops.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DScene bumper stories

### DScene 4-8-10

Hillside group ‘on tenterhooks’ (page 3)
By Mike Houlahan
Hillside engineering workshop workers and supporters have an anxious month ahead as KiwiRail prepares crucial documents for its half-million-dollar Auckland rail contract – paperwork that may hold the key to how much work might be made available to the Dunedin workshop.
{continues} #bookmark

Mayoral candidate (page 3)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Former Dunedin city councillor Lee Vandervis is having another go at the Dunedin mayoralty. Vandervis who polled second after incumbent Peter Chin in the 2007 mayoral race, announced today he is standing for the mayoralty in this year’s October local body elections. He has also put himself up as a council candidate.
{continues} #bookmark

Register to read DScene online at http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

Stadium will be on time: Farry (page 5)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Carisbrook Stadium Trust chairman Malcolm Farry, under stern questioning at a meeting Monday, assured councillors the Forsyth Barr Stadium would be finished on time, on budget. Farry said rumours that the stadium was three months behind schedule were nonsense when the subject arose at the Dunedin City Council (DCC) finance and strategy meeting.

Dave Cull said the trust report was “manifestly at odds with reality” and he would vote against the committee accepting it.

Farry said the October critical path had now been superceded by Hawkins Construction Ltd’s critical path which would probably not go public to avoid nitpicking around deadlines not being met.

{continues} #bookmark

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New service in February (page 5)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Dunedin gets its new $28.8m kerbside rubbish and recycling service next February, with another four months before rates for the collection kick in.
{continues} #bookmark

Talk: Dunedin on Dunedin (page 8)
Puzzling over drive
Letter to the editor by Bernard L Esquilant, Wakari
“…it is my contention that during the past six years this city has endured the decision-making of what must be the most inept civic administration in the city’s history.”
{read the full letter} #bookmark

Speight’s pride of the world (pages 12-13)
Dunedin’s best-known beer, Speights, has gone from near extinction to being New Zealand’s biggest-selling beer. Mike Houlahan reports.

Speight’s owner Lion Nathan employs about 40 people at Rattray St across all areas of the business, and is considering further investment in the city.

{continues} #bookmark #bookmark

****

Check out the photograph of Rattray St in 1911…
and the superb image work of Otago Polytechnic Art School photography lecturer Max Oettli

A century on (page 15)
New Hocken exhibition depicts Dunedin in 1910 and 2010
By Gavin Bertram
In 1910 there were a mere 440 students at the University of Otago; today there are almost 22,000. The gender split is in favour of women, whereas in 1910 they were a fraction of the student population. This is just one of the huge changes Dunedin has seen over the preceding century, a subject broached by the new 100 UP exhibition at the Hocken Gallery.
{continues} #bookmark

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Post by Elizabeth Kerr

D Scene: 2nd birthday, 100th issue

### D Scene 9-6-10 (page 1)
Rail rally
Hillside workers and supporters have vowed to press on with their against the odds campaign to convince their employers KiwiRail to keep a lucrative engineering contract in-house.
#bookmark

Hillside workers rally (page 3)
By Mike Houlahan
About 200 Hillside workers and supporters braved wind and rain yesterday to vent their feelings over state-owned KiwiRails’s refusal to tender for its own contract to supply rail carriages for the Auckland service. Workers at the South Dunedin engineering works and their fellow workshop at Woburn in Wellington have slated their employer’s assessment that the firm can not and should not tender for the multi-million dollar contract – work which an economic assessment has said has said could be worth 1300 jobs and $250 million to GDP.
{continues} #bookmark

Register to read D Scene online at http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

Parking question (page 5)
By Wilma McCorkindale
More maneuvering of the city’s parking regime may be forced, after complaints by businesses in the Moray Pl arts quadrant. The area’s spokesman David McLeod, of the Quadrant Gallery, said he met with the Dunedin City Council Parking Working Party chairman Syd Brown recently to thrash out several requests from the business community. That included free Saturday parking for the Moray Pl arts and culture quadrant south of the Octagon.

“Why not do something to attract people back to this area – something to revitalise.”
-David McLeod

{continues} #bookmark

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South Dunedin (page 6)
Council planners on the South Dunedin revitalisation project have lots to work with, Dunedin City Council (DCC) city development manager Anna Johnson said. Almost 100 people had their say at a recent consultation event in the suburb and more than 55 had written submissions to the DCC’s South Dunedin strategy document.
{continues} #bookmark

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Talk: Dunedin on Dunedin (page 9)
Your say: Letters to the editor #bookmark
Promises, promises…
By Peter Attwooll, Dunedin Central
We hear Amalgamated Builders Ltd and Lund Construction have missed out on a carpentry contract for the stadium (D Scene 2/6/10). They lose out to an Auckland company which gives a lower price.
{continues}

A scandal
By GR MacDonald, St Kilda
The revelation that Dunedin workers have lost out to an Auckland company over a Forsyth Bar Stadium carpentry contract is truly a scandal.
{continues}

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Post by Elizabeth Kerr

D Scene – No new #DunedinSlogan

CRIKEY

We like Dunedin’s self-deprecatory humour. Not to be defeated, the new #DunedinSlogans campaign – why have just one – will be mounted by the united citizens of Dunedin. We will make the T-shirts! Shame on our father figures for piking out. See D Scene’s page 7: a cautionary tale that is almost certainly to be about what to do in an emergency, or when the Civic Centre floods and loses *power*. Was there something about a marketing and communications plan…

### D Scene 2-6-10
They’re building our stadium right here (page 1)
Dunedin building firms are dismayed after an Auckland company beat them to the punch for a stadium carpentry contract. See page 3.
#bookmark

Register to read D Scene online at http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

City workers promised jobs (page 3)
By Wilma McCorkindale
An Auckland company has won the carpentry contract on the Forsyth Barr (Otago) Stadium, but is promising Dunedin workers jobs. In a decision last week, a joint carpentry tender put by local companies ABL (Amalgamated Builders Ltd) Lund Construction, was dumped in favour of Auckland company Wallace Construction.
The decision had made things difficult for the ABL-Lund joint venture. About 30 local workers would have been employed on the stadium carpentry teams.
{continues} #bookmark

****

Rail contract battle not over says MP (page 3)
By Mike Houlahan
Dunedin South Labour MP Clare Curran says the battle to convince KiwiRail to build new carriages for Auckland’s rail system at its Hillside and Woburn workshops is not over.
Curran yesterday repeated her call for an independent assessment of the capacity at Hillside and Wellington’s Woburn workshop.
A rally in support of Hillside and its workers will be held next Tuesday. A march will start from the Dental School at 11.30am, and will be followed by speeches in the Octagon.
{continues} #bookmark

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Council dumps idea for new slogan (page 7)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Dunedin embarked on a slogan-seeking exercise in January. So, where the bloody hell is it?
City marketing and communications agency manager Debra Simes declined to comment whether a slogan would remain as part of the new brand, but said her team was in the throes of finalising its marketing and communications plan.
{continues} #bookmark

****

Talk: Dunedin on Dunedin (page 8)
Your say: Letters to the editor
I can see clearly now by Lyndon Weggery, Dunedin
My thanks to Jimmy Jones (D Scene 26/5/10) for making it crystal clear that the latest so-called consultation exercise on South Dunedin Retail strategy is nothing more than a Parking Section smokescreen to do away with limited free-time parking in King Edward St.
{continues} #bookmark

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A building of memories (pages 9-10)
By Mike Houlahan
Dunedin Gasworks Museum has won a race against time to restore another building at the industrial heritage complex. The fitting shop at the Dunedin Gasworks has led a charmed liife. Now it is almost fully restored.
Dunedin City Council this week agreed to fund a $345,000 shortfall for restoration work on the Gasworks’ fitting shop.
The Dunedin Gasworks Museum is open every first and third Sunday of the month from midday until 4pm, and every Tuesday from midday until 4pm.
{continues} #bookmark #bookmark

****

Dunedin TV has plenty to celebrate (page 11)
By Wilma McCorkindale
DNTV2 made its first broadcast on July 31, 1962 – its half century anniversary is still two years away … Telvision New Zealand’s last Dunedin station manager, Russell Garbutt, said no matter which way one measures it, Dunedin was one of the most productive television regions in the country.
{continues} #bookmark

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

D Scene – South Dunedin library, Hillside, RWC 2011

### D Scene 26-5-10

Former councillor welcomes news (page 5)
News that negotiations for a potential site for the South Dunedin library are all but finalised has been welcomed by former St Kilda councillor Anne Turvey.

Turvey said the issue is greater than that of the simple provision of a library.

{continues} #bookmark

****

Talk: Dunedin on Dunedin (page 8)
Your say: Letters to the editor
Give New Zealand workshops a go by Stuart McKenzie, Dunedin
In a dream world by Jimmy Jones, Caversham
#bookmark

Register to read D Scene online at http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

Details: The finer points (pages 9 -10)
South in a spin
By Mike Houlahan
Planning is already well in train to make sure Rugby World Cup 2011 will be about more than just the games. Rugby World Cup chief executive Martin Snedden is, naturally, taking a keen interest in whether Dunedin is ready to host its allotted Rugby World Cup games next year. But it is the combined promotional campaign devised by Otago and Southland councils and tourism organisations that has got him really excited.

“Have you seen the Spin It Wide DVD?”

{continues} #bookmark #bookmark

****

Biz: Crunching the numbers (pages 12-13)
Light at the end of tunnel?
KiwiRail’s Hillside workshop is a hive of activity right now, but remains a shadow of its former self. Mike Houlahan considers the past, present and future of a Dunedin landmark. Amid the smashes and the clashes that are KiwiRail’s Hillside Workshops hard at work, it’s easy to forget that the workforce at the South Dunedin institution is about 10 per cent of what it once was.

Today, Hillside employs 185 staff. A few decades ago, when rail was the dominant means of moving freight and people around New Zealand, more than a thousand people worked at Hillside, building and maintaining locomotives and carriages.

{continues} #bookmark

****

Scarfie: Life on campus (page 19)
Audacious winners: Design Studies students do well in entrepreneur competition
Designing a future
By Gavin Bertram
Last week the ten winners of the NBR 24/7 Audacious Business Idea Competition were announced, and four were from Design Studies. That’s not a bad return from the University of Otago department that is soon for the chop – an irony not lost on the students.
{continues} #bookmark

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Post by Elizabeth Kerr

Investing in KiwiRail

### ODT Online Tue, 18 May 2010
$750m boost for KiwiRail
NZPA
The Government will invest an initial $250 million as part of a $4.6 billion long term plan to turn around KiwiRail, Prime Minister John Key announced today. Mr Key said $750m would be committed “in principle” over the next three years.
Read more

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

DScene – Public libraries, Hillside Workshops, stadium, pools

### DScene 19-5-10
Book it in (page 1)
The long-awaited South Dunedin Library looks to be on the horizon, with Dunedin City Council coming closer to a final deal on a site. See page 3. #bookmark

Register to read DScene online at http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

Harsh economic lesson taught at Hillside (page 2)
Dunedin was taught a brutal economic lesson last week, when KiwiRail confirmed its preliminary view that it would not tender for its own contract to build railcarriages and engines for Auckland.
{continues} #bookmark

Council set to finalise deal (page 3)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Dunedin City Council is about to finalise a deal on a potential location for the South Dunedin library. City property manager Robert Clark, who has been negotiating with an undisclosed vendor, said he expected to secure a site for the proposed library in the next three weeks to a month.
{continues} #bookmark

Factory staff uncertain of future (page 3)
By Mike Houlahan
Work programmes at KiwiRail’s Hillside workshops are decided for the next two years, but the 185 staff employed there remain unsure what will happen after the factory’s current contracts end.
{continues} #bookmark

Snedden checks stadium progress (page 5)
By Mike Houlahan
Rugby World Cup chief executive Martin Snedden has been checking progress on the construction of the Forsyth Barr at University Plaza stadium as his top priority for his visit to Dunedin this Friday. Snedden’s Dunedin visit is the latest in a series of excursions around the country, to the various towns and cities hosting Rugby World Cup matches.
{continues} #bookmark

Raising the roof (page 5)
The 398 tonne, 130m long roof truss for the Forsyth Barr multi-purpose roofed stadium in Dunedin, was lifted 35m into the sky at the weekend. The challenging five-hour operation could only be achieved in spcific weather conditions.
{continues} #bookmark

The Rugby World Cup itself, the Webb Ellis Cup, will be on show in Dunedin on Friday. TVNZ’s Breakfast weather presenter Tamati Coffey is touring the country, and will be broadcast live from the Art Gallery in the Octagon, from 6.30-8.30am. Two pool game ticket packs will be given away to the best dressed rugby fan.

****

Talk: Dunedin on Dunedin (page 8)
Your say: Letters to the editor
Landmark to the rich by Harvey Kong Tin, South Dunedin
Stadium issues by Lee Vandervis, Roslyn
#bookmark

Details: The finer points (page 10)
Library plot twist
By Wilma McCorkindale
A sudden plot twist last week has mystified readers of the continuing mystery entitled “Where will Dunedin’s new public library be built?” The main character in the story, the former Dunedin Chief Post Office building in the Exchange, had loomed as the most likely suspect in this “where-will-we-do-it” saga. But the plot thickened last week after the building was sold to another buyer whose four-star hotel plans mean the city’s books must find accommodation somewhere else.
{continues} #bookmark

Library needs overhaul according to report (page 11)
In its report to the council in December 2005, Octa backed [Dunedin Public Libraries chief librarian] Bernie Hawke on the need for a South Dunedin library but also said that the Dunedin Public Library needed to be redeveloped. The library building, tucked in behind the staircased Dunedin Civic Centre, was designed in the 1970s and built in 1981.
{continues} #bookmark

Little library needs a helping hand (page 11)
After almost a century of people borrowing from its shelves, St Kilda Community Library is asking folk to lend it a hand. It is looking to boost a small six-strong team of volunteer librarians, its dwindling membership, and its stack of titles, library committee president Gillian Lemon said.
{continues} #bookmark

Taking shape (page 12)
By Mike Houlahan
A year into Hillside Engineering’s newest contract, workers can begin to see the finished product take shape. Well, one-third of it anyway. This week the KiwiRail-operated workshop unveiled its latest work in progress, carriages for the sightseeing trains the TranzCoastal and the TranzAlpine.
{continues} #bookmark

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Game: Beyond the scoreboard (page 20)
Pool problems
Dunedin’s pools are a success story, with the four main council-managed pools racking up three quarters of a million visits in the 2008/09 financial year. However, all that glitters isn’t gold. Huge demand by casual and fitness swimmers for their turn in the city’s pools has in turn limited access to the water for competitive swimmers and pool sports such as water polo.
{continues} #bookmark

A recent report commissioned by the Dunedin City Council on pool services suggested a three-pronged strategy: upgrades at Moana and St Clair pools, new business practices, and a new pool at Mosgiel and a new inner city training pool.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Pumping Dunedin’s engineering capability

UPDATED

### ODT Online Sat, 15 May 2010
Hillside’s $40m contract
By Simon Hartley
KiwiRail’s Hillside Engineering in Dunedin has won a $40 million contract to deliver 20 carriages for operator Tranz Scenic. KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn yesterday confirmed the contract, saying the details would be released on Monday at a formal launch at Hillside workshops.

A KiwiRail spokesman said yesterday the carriages, designed by KiwiRail Mechanical Design, were the first new carriages entirely designed and built in New Zealand for many years. Construction would be supported by “key New Zealand component specialists”.

Read more

****

### ODT Online Sat, 15 May 2010
Political, business leaders push to promote Hillside workshops
By John Lewis
KiwiRail’s Hillside workshops may have won a $40 million contract to deliver carriages to Tranz Scenic, but it has not stopped Government, Dunedin City Council and Dunedin business representatives from moving ahead with plans to win at least some construction work on the $500 million tender for Auckland’s trains.

“I don’t think people understand what we can do here in New Zealand. So, we are doing a capability report to send to tenderers, to let them know exactly what we can do. There’s a huge amount of capability in Dunedin that is still untapped.”
-John Christie, Otago Chamber of Commerce

Read more

****

### ODT Online Fri, 14 May 2010
Hope remains for some Hillside work
By Mark Price
Members of the group pushing for Hillside to build trains for Auckland will meet this morning to thrash out where it goes next.

The Dunedin City Council and KiwiRail should fund a “capability assessment” of Dunedin’s engineering sector, which could be provided to international companies tendering to build the 38 three-car, electric multiple units (EMUs) and 13 electric locomotives.
-John Christie, Otago Chamber of Commerce

Read more

****

Related Posts:
13.5.10 KiwiRail decision ‘opens up’ opportunities
12.5.10 KiwiRail FAILS its engineering workshops bigtime
10.5.10 Building Auckland’s trains
7.5.10 ODT editorial mucking on about ‘commercial realism’
5.5.10 D Scene – train building, buses and forest products
1.5.10 Why we love Dunedin Engineering! Make it a WIN!

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

KiwiRail decision ‘opens up’ opportunities

UPDATED

### ODT Online Thu, 13 May 2010
Quinn dashes Hillside’s hopes
By Mark Price
Any lingering hopes KiwiRail’s Hillside workshops might get the chance to build trains for Auckland have been dashed. KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn met staff in Dunedin yesterday to break the news the workshop would not be bidding for the contract to build 38 three-car, electric multiple units (EMUs) and 13 electric locomotives as part of Auckland’s $500 million urban rail development. That decision had left rail workers “gutted”, according to Rail and Maritime Trade Union general secretary Wayne Butson.

KiwiRail was “actively” trying to find work for the workshops from “any source we can get” and was “keen to present Dunedin’s engineering capability to the wider world”.

Read more

****

### ODT Online Thu, 13 May 2010
Opinion: On right track for trains
By Steven Joyce
Phil Goff’s emotional approach to KiwiRail does not change the facts – the Crown owns a struggling business and needs to make some tough calls, on behalf of the public, to turn KiwiRail around, writes Steven Joyce.

It is all very well for Phil Goff to make an emotional argument for Auckland’s new trains to be built at Dunedin’s Hillside workshop but this is precisely the kind of “do it at any cost” mindset that got us into the difficult position we now find ourselves in with regard to KiwiRail and the Government’s books more generally.
Read more

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

KiwiRail FAILS its engineering workshops bigtime

### ODT Online Wed, 12 May 2010
KiwiRail won’t bid for Auckland rail work
By Mark Price
Any lingering hopes KiwiRail’s Hillside workshops might get the chance to build trains for Auckland have been dashed. KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn met staff in Dunedin yesterday to break the news the workshop would not be bidding for the contract believed to be worth around $375 million. Speaking to the Otago Daily Times afterwards, Mr Quinn said the decision was made because he believed the New Zealand workshops could not deliver in the required timeframe and at a price that would be competitive with overseas manufacturers.
Read more

Post by Elizabeth Kerr

DScene – Geoff Thomson buys back former CPO

### DScene 12-5-10
Four star future (page 1)
The former central post office is set to become a luxury hotel, scuppering a proposal to redevelop the historic landmark as a central library. See page 3. #bookmark

Former PO to become hotel (page 3)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Dunedin’s former Chief Post Office building will not become the city’s new library, and will instead be developed by Invercargill businessman Geoffrey Thomson into a luxury hotel. It is the second time Thomson, owner of the Distinction Hotel chain – with hotels in Te Anau, Queenstown and Rotorua – has owned the Dunedin building. In 2003 Thomson announced he had bought the property and had a $230 million revamp of it in mind.
{continues} #bookmark

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Quinn to visit Hillside Workshops (page 3)
By Mike Houlahan
KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn steps into the lion’s den today, visiting workers at its Hillside [Workshops] to explain the company’s position on tendering for the building of carriages and engines for Auckland’s rail system. […] “We believe there are good opportunities for any of the tenderers to be looking at Hillside and all the other suppliers to see if there is an opportunity to align themselves with New Zealand companies in order to fulfil the tender requirements.” –John Christie, Otago Chamber of Commerce

{continues} #bookmark

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Youth Zone: Final days to have your say (page 6)
The Dunedin City Council has had a huge response from young people to the Youth Zone(s) consultation, which has been underway for two months. The aim is to identify what the city currently offers young people for recreation and leisure, and what the gaps may be.
{continues} #bookmark

Register to read DScene online at http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/

Plan open to public now (page 7)
The public gets to see the Dunedin City Council’s plans for South Dunedin today. People like DCC principal urban designer Steve Miles and South Dunedin Business Association president Jane Orbell are presenting a public display and information day as part of consultation on the new South Dunedin Retail Centre Strategy document. Consultation ends May 28.
{continues} #bookmark

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Party scene with Pete Hodgson (page 8)
NZ transport is off the rails
Transport Minister Steven Joyce made a public pronouncement recently that New Zealand does not have the capacity to build Auckland’s new electric trains. He is wrong.
{continues} #bookmark

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Biz: Crunching the numbers (pages 14-15)
Robot love: Robotic applications key
Two nondescript sheds off Portsmouth Drive are home to a world-leading engineering firm. Mike Houlahan profiles Realcold. Very few firms worldwide have the capacity to build and install a state-of-the-art meat and food chain from scratch. In fact, long-established Dunedin firm Realcold Milmech think they may be the only ones.
{continues} #bookmark

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr