Kāpiti Councillor Liz Koh, who put a motion to stop the Kāpiti Gateway project today, says the project has become symbolic of a Council that doesn’t listen to its community and cannot be trusted.
“Today’s decision to postpone the vote until early next year in order to obtain yet more information does nothing to enhance this perception. With the rate of change in our economy, key information for the project is constantly changing.”
Cr Koh says rather than continuing to waste time and money on project that has little public support, it is time to draw a line in the sand and make a decision on the information currently available.
Speaking to Cr Koh’s motion Cr Glen Cooper said the case against the Gateway was compelling.
“The business case was stacked against the project from the start and at no stage has it ever had public support. The cost blowouts were warned about a long time ago and completely ignored.”
With the probability looming that Cr Koh’s motion might pass, Deputy mayor Lawrence Kirby moved a procedural motion to leave the original motion that would have ended it on the table to a future meeting. Cr Kirby had been opposed to the Gateway during the election telling the Chamber of Commerce “I think that if Te Uruhi goes ahead, in its proposed form and location, the impact will be negative.”
Ironically, supporting his bid to keep the Gateway on life support were some of its greatest detractors during the recent election campaign.
Cr Kathy Spiers had earlier stated, “If elected as a councillor I will NOT be voting for or supporting the Gateway.”
Similarly Cr Rob Kofoed supported delaying a decision. Cr Kofoed had been stinging in his criticism of the Gateway during the election campaign but voted to stall it, as did Ōtaki ward councillor Shelly Warwick who said during the election “projects like Te Uruhi, the Kāpiti Gateway and the blow out in cost needs to be reigned in. There was little will for this project in the first place and the community were not listened to. Recently costs for Te Uruhi have increased by another $3 million, this comes from the ratepayer purse, it is unacceptable.”
However since being elected says she requires more time and information to decide.
Former Kāpiti Coast District Councillor Gwynn Compton, who led the charge last triennium against the Kāpiti Gateway, has slammed Council’s refusal to halt the ‘controversial and discredited Kāpiti Gateway project’ today as a slap in the face of Kāpiti residents.
“While our residents are having to cut their spending in the face of a worsening cost of living crisis, Council refuses to put an end to a non-core project whose budget has blown out, is running well behind schedule, has a business case that doesn’t add up, and has been overwhelmingly rejected by the community on multiple occasions. It’s a slap in the face for our community who deserve better from our elected representatives,” says Mr Compton.
“This is very clearly a high risk project that’s been poorly scoped and planned, let alone the litany of other process issues around it. All of this has seen the project become a byword for Council mismanagement and waste. Council needs to listen to its community, scrap the Gateway, and reallocate the funding to projects that are actually wanted by our community such as the new Waikanae Library and Paraparaumu Community Centre rebuild.”
The Vote for Mr Kirby’s motion to keep the Gateway project on the table was a 6-5 split.
Those for were Mayor Janet Holborow, Lawrence Kirby, Kathy Spiers, Shelly Warwick, Sophie Handford, Rob Kofoed,
Those to vote against were Liz Koh, Glen Cooper, Nigel Wilson Martin Halliday, Jocelyn Prvanov.
Cr Koh says she is looking to have her original motion back before council to vote on at the earliest opportunity.
