Snobbery

Stuff reports:

Moral and health-related objections to fast food should not be considered in a hearing for a proposed Wānaka McDonald’s, the company claims.

Neither was the perception of McDonald’s as a large corporate that should not be allowed to exist, legal representative Jeremy Brabant said at the resource consent hearing which opened on Monday.

“The type and nature of the restaurant … is not a relevant consideration.”

While the proposal for the Wānaka restaurant drew an uproar in the small community and 339 people submitted in opposition to the plans, only six turned up to see the company argue its case, on Monday.

The company is entirely correct. The vast majority of the objections will be based on snobbery – that McDonalds is a venue for lower class people than the refined residents of Wanaka.

McDonald’s proposes building a single-storey 445m sq restaurant and drive-through at the Mt Iron Junction, at the intersection of SH6 and SH84.

This is what makes the objections particularly inane. The junction is around 3 kms out from the Wanaka township. I could semi-understand if it was proposed for the lakefront, but out at the junction is an excellent location.

There had been suggestions that the restaurant would be better placed in the Three Parks retail development but the rent at the suggested site was so exorbitant, the business would not be feasible, he said.

The Three Parks developer Willowbank was opposing the application, he said

McDonald’s was “not thrilled” to have received correspondence as recently as November 12 inviting them to call the Willowbank director and consider a new site if the application was unsuccessful.

A good law change would be to ban any competitor from objecting to a resource consent – or paying someone to object on their behalf.