I'm getting an acute attack of the deja vu's, how about you?
Saturday, 6 April 2019
Waterfront bid a platform for future
With deliberations around Dunedin's provincial growth fund application for the waterfront area reaching their final stages, Duendin businessman Ian Taylor addresses the importance of public debate being informed and factual.
In the coming week the independent assessment panel for the provincial growth fund will meet to consider our application for the waterfront vision.
If the panel were to make its recommendation to Cabinet based on opinion pieces such as the recent offering from Dr Robert Hamlin, a lecturer in the University of Otago's marketing department, and others, we could rest safe in the knowledge that the decades of neglect that has been the hallmark of our waterfront would continue for decades to come.
Fortunately, the panel will be informed by an $820,000 feasibility study and business case paid for by the provincial growth fund.
That's a serious commitment by the Government, not only to our ratepayers, but also to all New Zealand taxpayers who are funding its $3 billion investment in the provinces.
If Dr Hamlin wants rigour in the debate, I can assure him we have had that in spades.
Prepared by independent consultants, the business case is a comprehensive commercial, structural, and environmental feasibility study that was presented to key government agencies in December last year.
Since then, the business case has been the subject of a rigorous evaluation process by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Given the amount of investment we are seeking from the fund, and the competitive nature of applications from across the country, we would expect nothing less..................
www.odt.co.nz/opinion/waterfront-bid-platform-future
