There are busybody arsehats everywhere, as I’m sure you know, but perhaps none more so than out in Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges.
It’s often said that an environmentalist is one who already has their bush cabin. Seeking to prove the truth of that saying and to push up their own property values by excluding others, a group calling itself the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society says they plan “to appeal a controversial decision by the Waitakere City Council that allows small-lot subdivision in the foothills of the Waitakere Ranges to the Environment Court.”
“In spite of the best efforts by council officers, rogue decisions will always be made and loopholes in the rules exploited by determined developers,” says the Society. More power to those determined developers, I say. “The Resource Management Act process just doesn’t deliver the consistency and quality outcomes we need,” concludes Society President John Edgar. Now there, we agree. Perhaps he too should look at property rights and common law based protections for the environment rather than the blunt instrument he currently wields.
He might find it the best way to de-politicise the environment, instead of witch-doctoring it up with plans and planners.
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