Christchurch is blessed with a couple of good kiwi blokes, city councillors Phil Mauger and James Daniels.
Local residents have been frustrated by flooding on Pages Road since the earthquake. Every time it rains, the footpath ends up underwater. The council has had enough time and money to build itself a flash new headquarters, but couldn’t spare any effort to fix the busy street.
Mauger borrowed a digger and did what council stuff should have done a decade ago. He dug a trench one weekend and fixed the problem overnight. Well done, mate.
Two days later, council workers turned up with their own digger and filled in the trench, causing flooding to happen again.
Apparently, the trench created ‘health and safety’ concerns as well as ‘environmental risks’ that required immediate action. As if the flooding wasn’t a health and safety risk (polluted stagnant water and pedestrians forced to compete with cars on a busy road), or an environmental risk (erosion and sediment displacement). Any private company that allowed this to happen would be prosecuted by council.
The council claims it spent $9,000 to ‘fix’ the trench – which explains why council projects always go over budget. I would have flown to Christchurch and done it myself for half that. But it took eight council staff to inspect the site before work began.
In my view, the staff should be held to account for their decade of tardiness, the inefficiency of eight inspectors, their outrageous spending habits, and their reversal of a practical solution. But of course, it is Mauger who is in trouble.
Fellow good kiwi bloke and councillor, James Daniels, is standing by Mauger. He has described the council’s processes as “wrong and stupid” and “not fit for purpose”.
Meanwhile, the pair have been summoned to a meeting and told to consult a lawyer, with possible penalties or disciplinary action pending.
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