Cambridge people remember the Innovating Streets debacle where coloured dots were painted in our intersections, planter boxes replaced car parks, and orange sticks blocked access to streets. This was all done without consultation as part of a social engineering program. We were gaslit as speed bumps were renamed "speed cushions" and the dots were "to distract drivers into slowing down for safety". Distracting drivers is the opposite of safety.
Te Awamutu was next, but the negative reaction saved them.
Then came the cycle lanes. Consultation took place, using a completely different set of plans to what actually got built. Kihikihi copped this one alongside Cambridge. Cycle and pedestrian numbers were faked by putting counters outside kindergarten entrances.
The council is legally required to consult properly (Local Government Act 2002 section 82). They broke the law. It was deliberate, with the intention of benefiting their own agenda, which is actually a crime (Crimes Act 1961 section 105).
It happened again when they tried to hide significant changes in their dog control policy. I wrote an article about this, "Council to ban dogs from dog park" https://goodoil.news/council-to-ban-dogs-from-dog-park/. The consultation was left off the annual dog registration forms and buried two links down on the council website. The staff blamed the public's lack of computer skills!
That debacle cost Jim Mylchreest the election Link
In came Susan O'Regan promising transparency. Empty words. Link
Each time I had contacted the council with polite, informed, and detailed submissions, none of which were even acknowledged. I pointed out the legal breaches and offered solutions. One breach may be accidental, two coincidental, three is a pattern of behaviour, four is deliberate.
The BLUE BLOB Cambridge Connections project was a total farce. The truth is even worse. The bridge location was used to justify the removal of 300 car parks from the town's CBD. I called this out, but after the previous stone-walls, I had to do so in a way that could not be ignored. What other option did I have? Be polite a fifth time and expect a different result? That is the definition of insanity.
Some people chose to fake offence. This is outright hypocrisy. 100 familes were getting their property values, and therefore their lives, destroyed by an anti-car agenda that council staff intended to force through with an illegal abuse of power.
The locals stood with me. 500 people turned up to a public meeting where O'Regan stormed out. The left-wing media attacked me relentlessly over the next week for going against the PC agenda. I don't care. I will always stand up against B.S.
Eventually, the council admitted I was right. Link I'm not waiting for an apology.
This is why we need to change the council at THIS election in October. If we don't, the staff who really run the place, will think they got away with it. They will push harder and faster until all of Waipa is affected. Speed bumps, 30kph limits, no car parks, expensive cycleways, empty buses, road closures, and congestion charging for the congestion they cause. You will be ignored. We need a Better Waipa.
