The secret Christchurch transport plan

HDPA writes:

Christchurch City Council deserves a public bollocking for trying to keep information secret this week.

The information in question was the 30-year draft Christchurch Transport Plan.

It could be controversial. Most transport plans nowadays are. Especially when they propose what this plan does. Reducing city speed limits to 30km per hour. Road pricing charges (even when the council admits “congestion is not currently a major problem in Christchurch”). Charging for CBD car parks when 79 per cent of parks are currently free.

Council staff were clearly worried it would anger the public. They warned the plan might be “presented out of context”. So they wanted to keep its contents hidden. Staff admitted they had “no applicable grounds for withholding” the draft plan. But they were going to try anyway.

It wasn’t only council staff in on this. So were some councillors.

Mike Davidson who chairs the council’s urban development and transport committee was worried it would be confusing to the public.

He didn’t think it was wise to release the report during the “funny season” for councils. The funny season is the election period. Better, he said, to “park it and let the new council decide”.

With that one remark, Davidson probably revealed the real motivation for keeping the document secret. For councillors, the risk of losing council seats. For council staff, the risk of their plan being scuppered by angry ratepayers.

Sums up everything wrong with the current culture at Christchurch City Council.

In the end, we do know what is in that plan. Two councillors – Phil Mauger and Aaron McKeown – went to the media to force the council to ‘fess up. They were, in turn, accused of scaremongering and pulling an “election stunt”. Of course that’s what they did. But an election stunt is a lesser crime than trying to hide information during an election period.

Those who tried to hide the plan deserve public opprobrium.

They’d do well to remember they work for the ratepayers. And ratepayers would do well to remember that too, and use their votes accordingly.

Vote for Councillors who don’t try to hide things from the public.