Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: The Minister's Brain Has Exploded, in reply to Sacha,
I think he said his people had done the talking rather than himself, to be fair.
Which doesn't alter the fact that McCully claimed Doug McKay knew what was going on -- but he clearly didn't.
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Just tweeted by Josh Arbury, not sure of source:
Council CEO says McCully's announcement took him by surprise & council doesn't need RWC legislation to expand fanzines.
I really hope this gets as much air as McCully's bogus claim that he'd told the CEO. McCully just looks to have lied about this.
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Scoop has excerpted key parts of the report from the MED consent application:
The Ministry of Economic Development (“the Applicant”) seeks urgent approval to amend the scope of the Queens Wharf Fanzone, Festival and Showcase event and associated public access arrangements during the Rugby World Cup 2011 (“RWC 2011”). The need for this approval is a result of issues concerning the capacity of Queens Wharf (set at 14,000) and around Quay Street and the unprecedented levels of public attendance that were experienced during the RWC 2011 opening night celebrations on 9 September 2011. Those capacity limitations resulted in large queues outside the Queens Wharf entrance, and these extended for a significant distance along Quay Street and surrounding areas. There were considerable health and safety risks for members of the public gathered around the Auckland Waterfront and Queens Wharf on opening night. The proximity of the large waterfront crowd to the ferry terminal and railway station also caused significant disruption to the public transport services that are essential to the proper delivery of the Rugby World Cup and the movement of patrons to and from Eden Park.
[…]The Applicant proposes to provide additional crowd space, if required, on Captain Cook Wharf, to the immediate east of Queens Wharf. The Applicant is also planning for the closure of parts of Quay Street. It is proposed to close Quay Street from the intersection of Lower Albert Street to the intersection with Britomart Place, and possibly as far east as Tinley Street. This road closure will be accompanied by traffic management safety treatments and both fixed and variable signage designed to direct both vehicles and pedestrians. The applicant plans to install temporary public toilet facilities along the closed area of Quay Street to ensure that the needs of any assembled crowd can be catered for. The application for the closure of Quay Street is the subject of a separate approval process that is being dealt with by Auckland Transport.
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Aaaaand ...
The Ministry of Economic Development's consent application.
Key part is the report, which notes that Queen's Wharf lacked enough capacity to meet demand.
But, of course, it "worked perfectly" according to the minister.
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Hard News: The Minister's Brain Has Exploded, in reply to Richard Aston,
It seems the original decentralized party approach advance by Auckland City was over ridden by government and its party central idea.
This seems a crucial piece of information that’s got buried – Govt created the conditions for the problem in the first place.
Yes. The RWC 2011 plan -- devised by Snedden and local authorities -- was for multiple fan zones, with less of an emphasis on the "party". That will still happen to some extent later in the tournament.
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3 News has first word on the plans the council has -- as, er, planned -- released a few minutes ago.
Looks like I was wrong -- Captain Cook wharf will be hastily dressed up as a new fan zone. Fuck knows what they're going to do with that ship that's supposed to be there on the AB-France weekend.
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Hard News: The Minister's Brain Has Exploded, in reply to Sacha,
We may need a psychologist’s opinion about his overweening crush for the waterfront.
Yes. Pardon my language, but he seems to have just fucking made that shit up.
Which, of course, does not stop it being faithfully reported as news …
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Rudman says what government officials requested of the council was for the two extra wharves to be made available a a contingency -- for overflow in case of emergency.
This is perfectly sensible. It is also nothing like McCully's bizarre claim yesterday that they would be turned into new fan zones.
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Hard News: The Minister's Brain Has Exploded, in reply to Sacha,
From Cayford:
Auckland Council permitted two hugely popular events at each end of its main railway line (Eden Park and Britomart). Auckland Council anticipated about 60,000 at one, and at least 100,000 at the other. But only contracted with Veolia to get 15,000 to Eden Park.
Having a painfully limited rail system do both those jobs was a major mistake. But there were buses too, and they seem to have worked quite well. It would be interesting to know how many of the Quay Street crowd actually did arrive by rail.
Auckland Council and Auckland Transport appear to have made no effort at all to stop crowds of people from flocking to station and ferry platforms all over Auckland, and – as both Len Brown and Veolia’s CEO said – overwhelming the system.
It seems the failure of the screen triggered the wash of people over toward the ferry building, but the major issue remains that the designated area was not big enough for the massive crowd that turned up. As Toby says, if it had been made clearer to people who hadn’t worked it out that Queen’s Wharf was a non-starter, that crowd would have dispersed,