Last updated 11:27, June 27 2018
Panuku
Anzac St car park in central Takapuna is set for sale, after a March 7 decision to change its legal use.
Anzac St car park in central Takapuna is set for sale, after a March 7 decision to change its legal use.
A concerned resident has temporarily stopped Auckland Council from selling off public assets in affluent Takapuna - at least for six weeks.
Through High Court action, legal strategist Miriam Clements obtained an undertaking from Auckland Council to not finalise sales of a range of car parks and properties in Takapuna until her legal review in six weeks. The review focuses on the legality of the council's plan to sell or develop a central Takapuna car park, as well as a other assets.
"Should justice eventually prevail to protect the public's substantive rights to own, use and enhance these legacy land assets in perpetuity, then this order prevents any disposals to meet indiscriminate financing targets for council, in the interim and gives us a chance to retain all of these properties permanently," Clements wrote in an email announcing the "good news".
She noted an earlier, February, undertaking from Auckland Council to not sell the central car park at 40 Anzac St, until the August judicial review, remained in place.
At the hearing on June 21, Auckland Council was given a one-day window to pledge not to sell any public assets in Takapuna.
An artist's interpretation of potential new development at 40 Anzac Street, Takapuna.
On June 22, the council released a memorandum confirming it would not undertake a disposal prior to the conclusion of the case.
Auckland Council general counsel James Hassall said that, in February, the council gave an undertaking to give notice of any sale of the Anzac Street site. The council has now given an undertaking not to enter into an unconditional sale and purchase agreement in relation to the other council-owned properties now subject to the proceedings until Clement's proceedings seeking a permanent prohibition of sale are determined.
"The hearing for those proceedings is now only six weeks away. The undertaking has been given in this context, and should not be taken as an acknowledgement that there is any merit in the proceedings, or to indicate that the council intends to sell those properties. As the matter is before the court we cannot comment further at this stage."
Legal strategist Miriam Clements, who has taken Auckland Council and councillors to the High Court over the Anzac St car park issue, likened the planning committee's decision to a theft of democracy.
Clements said the result was "good news".
"Moving car parks underground and improving public value on the ground level of these locations is genuinely the only sound change that should be made to such public service assets while our economy relies on public mobility," Clements said.
"It will take years to shift toward their [the council's] fantasy of predominantly public transport."
In March, the redevelopment of Anzac St car park was green-lighted by Auckland Council despite push-back from the community and unanimous opposition from the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board.
At a public meeting held on June 10, local board member Mike Sheehy described the consultation process with public as "a farce".
But the collective resistance had left one city councillor worried about the future of the suburb.
"I just hope that council doesn't see this [community opposition] as an opportunity to pull the plug on Takapuna entirely, because we would lose $50 million on investment," Chris Darby said.
The next hearing, a judicial review, was set for August 13.
Clements stood, unsuccessfully, for North Shore electorate in the 2017 general election and recently set in train a citizens' referendum to declare the North Shore an independent city state with its own economy.
In other High Court action, Clements is suing the Government for its use of 1080 poison, which she argues is a chemical weapon designed to infiltrate waterways. Clements believed 1080 was to blame for Mycoplasma bovis, a result of the poison causing penicillin-resistant antibodies.