I returned to work yesterday after some of the most miserable weeks I have experienced. Chicken pox is no fun and given how long I was ill, I am inclined to revise my earlier opinion that it is not worse for an adult. I still have no energy and a few healing spots, but I was very anxious to get back to work.

In today’s local newspaper the issue of the Notice of Motion over the Linklater Block completely misrepresents the position taken by Cr’s Gordon Cruden, Alison Wall, Anne Podd, and myself.

There is no issue around the fact that councillors will not be able to attend next week’s council meeting. As long as there is a quorum council properly conducts its business - end of story! To beat the newspaper article up into some kind of sour grapes that we will be away at conference is misleading the public.

The paper says, “Crs Podd, Wall, Cruden and Pope will be in Auckland next week at a planning and resource management conference in Auckland and they say the meeting will be unrepresentative of the council’s view.” What rubbish! The only effect our absence will have at the meeting is that we will not be present to vote against council taking an illegal action.

The issue is actually simple - the Linklater Block is included in the Draft Annual Plan. Submissions on the DAP are open until 20th May. Council is constrained by law to go into consultation and the resultant debates with an open mind. We cannot legally circumvent the consultation process by making a decision on any aspect of the DAP until after submissions close and are taken fully into account during our debate on the plan.

At 6am Tuesday, 19th, Cr Gordon Cruden sent an e-mail to our Mayor. In it he mentioned that the Linklater Block was due to come up for debate at the next council meeting (following a 50/50 split in votes from the Recreation Well-Being Committee meeting) and asking her to defer such debate.

The Mayor responded that she was “not aware of any Major Late item for the council meeting, the matter of the Linklater Block will come up in the Recreation Committee report”, but did not respond to the request that the item be deferred.
First thing this morning a Notice of Motion was presented to council. The motions to be put are:
1. Reaffirm Council’s commitment to retain the Linklater Block as a City reserve for passive recreation, and
2. That the Linklater Liaison Group be reactivated.

Cr Gordon Cruden sent another e-mail to the Mayor again seeking her agreement to defer the debate. I understand he has not received a response.

At around the same time this morning that Cr Cruden sent his e-mail I sent my own e-mail to the Mayor. In it I state: “I respectfully request that you defer this issue and that no decision on the Linklater Block is made before submissions close.”