Questions over Christchurch City Council planning to spend $200 thousand on a shuttle bus study.
Environment Canterbury wants to stop the proposed resurrection of a free inner-city shuttle, saying 1800 bus movements each weekday is enough.
A 2023 law change means ECan will get the final say.
Mayor Phil Mauger admits he voted for the costly study.
But he told John MacDonald ECan didn't mention anything until it was included in the annual plan.
He says there's no use spending the money if it doesn't get the green light, so council should re-think the idea.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from News talks'd B.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now though, it's time to say hello to christ Church
Mere film Major you go, Phil, mate, Well, we're going
to say hello and goodbye. This is our last catch
up because of the what it's three months? We were
on the verge of being three months out from the
local body elections.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Correct? Correct? And that's it just works a lot better
for you guys and us. Did I take a break
from coming to see any time you want to? You
can bring up my comms people and ask me to
come and see you issue.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
But if we did this, it would be seen as
a potential party political broadcast.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Who wouldn't know.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Because you and I were so on the same ways.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Absolutely, and that's a worry you worried about.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
You would not be challenged at all, and it would
be a party political broadcast, wouldn't it. Yeah, I'll be
wearing a Vote Major T shirt and I'll be to
be careful. Are we in the three months yet?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Or not? No?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
We're not, thank you, all right? I don't want to
create any problems with the Electoral Commission, right you told us?
And I can't remember how many weeks ago it was.
But we were talking about the state of after our
medical services in christ Church and also the situation with
the emergency department in christ Church. And you said, oh,
(01:18):
that's quite handy. You said, because I'm going to be
meeting Simmy and Brown in about a week or two
and I'll talk to him about it. What happened with
that conversation.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yes, I did see him then, but I didn't talk
to him about it then. But I have since rung
him and talked to him about it. As you know.
I went there last Saturday night for an hour and
it was it's outstanding. A lovely lady called Laura showed
me around. I wouldn't say she was embarrassed, but it
was extremely quiet. They don't like using the Q word.
They call it quiet. Two days before they had them
(01:48):
stacked up in the in the hallways because they couldn't
get them in. The hospital was full, so they couldn't
move them up to the hospital. But they were quite
at this stage, but she was good. I talked to
Simeon and I said, right, what can we do here?
Christ Church ed is the busiest one in the country,
(02:10):
And he said, since twenty twenty three, the seventeen hundred
new nurses have come on in the country not there,
and two hundred new doctors have come on. So's he's
fully aware of it, and he's just pushing your head
getting more and more people to services situation.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
What did you tell him? Did you ask him what
you're doing for us and thank you? Or did you
make it clear that it's a pretty surely situation for
New Zealand's second largest city.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I just said, how are we going? And he said, yes,
we're working on it. We've got we know it's the
busiest one and we're putting more staff in there.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Or why is the city council spending two hundred thousand dollars?
And if you listen to this, I want your views
on this as well. Once Fella's explained the council's position,
Why is the council spending two hundred thousand dollars on
a study looking at bringing in the little you know,
the yellow shuttle bus that operated before the earthquakes. Why
is spending the money on a study to find out
(03:02):
if it should be reintroduced or not when he can
has already seen so we've got eighteen hundred bus movements
in the center of town. We don't think it's needed,
and we'll be the ones making the final decision. Anyways,
why are you blowing two hundred k on it? Well,
good question.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
When we were doing the annual plan was brought up
by one of the counselors and to do a study.
Now I did a bit at home. We can buy
a brand new small bus for one hundred and eighty
five grand. So of course, the way Phil looks at
it is why I waste money spending money on a
on scoping when you can actually get one bus.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So you agree it's a waste of money.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
In my view, it's a waste of money to do
the scoping when you can buy a bus for the
same amount of money. But there had to be a
fair bit of work going on to decide where it
would go, all of that sort of stuff, because in
theory we need too from what I'm told, but we
need to do the scoping. But that was all decided
before I can came along and said, ah, well, we
(03:55):
won't support it, so really we should be looking at
it again and maybe saying well, it's no use spending
two hundred grand. They say it's a bit less than that,
there's no use spending two hundred grand if you're not
going to get the green light anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So you're going to you're gonna push that. Yeah, yes,
we'll have to.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Yes, I would like to see us rethink it if
like there's no use spending the money, if then we're
not going to get the green light from the headmaster,
so to speak.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
And are you saying that this this has all all
come about because one counselor.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Oh no, no, no, no, no no. There's a number
of people. And I did vote for it because at
that stage it was just scoping because I was told, well, Phil,
you don't go and buy a bus, you actually do
you get some business case. And I already had the
bus bought just about in my head do the business case.
But then after all that was done and we voted
(04:44):
that through that it would go into the annual plan,
that's when he can came along.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So we've got to revisit that and see, okay, right,
it's twelve plast ten I one hundred and eighty. Ten
and eighty is the number. After we talked to Phil,
finished talking and Phil, when I find out what you
think the council should do. Should it go back and
decide against this idea of spending two hundred thousand dollars
on a study into a shuttle bus in the center
of when Ecan says, went on in favor of it,
(05:09):
and we'll make the final decision. You tell me you
stand on this one, Phil. Why is it going to
cost six million bucks to improve intersection safety in Hornby?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Do you know where the two corners are?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
You know, familiar can'ts are used them all the time.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Springs Road Amy's and Springs Road aver Tia. Sadly they
don't line up with each other. So it's that it
needs two intersection rebuilds within probably eighty meters of each other.
And the six million dollars was for the whole nine yards.
Now staff, that's full reconstruction of the road, all sorts
of things, two lots of traffic lights everything. It desperately
(05:43):
needs it out there because there's a lot of horsewall
residents that are coming into town. It's actually a bit
of a bugger. But staff are now going away looking
at if we put one lot of traffic lights in,
that'll take the pressure off the next intersection because the
will be stoppage of traffic, so the giveaway one might
be a lot safer. So that's what they're looking at
the moment. That's the worst case scenario.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
And of course six million bucks.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
There'll be storm water issues of the water Maine issues
underneath it. The yeah, it's it's scary numbers.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
You really very uncomfortable nodding then and acknowledging that. It's
almost that you couldn't bring yourself to say yes.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
When I when I had my contracting company years ago,
I might spend a million dollars once in the blue
moon and think, oh that's a lot of money. Now,
million dollars just runs off your runs off your tongue,
and it's it's scary that everything we do is millions
of dollars.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
So are your old contemporaries taking you for a ride
now that you're the mayor pame, are your civil engineering
contemporaries are they taking your for a No?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
No, no, no no. It just that things do cost
a lot more. But we've got to look at maybe
if we can do one intersection and that that will
save save money.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Okay, all right, speaking of money, how come the water
treatment project is seventy three million dollars over budget. That's
another one you look at, uncomfortable about it.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
And that works out. We had this council the other day.
It's one hundred and fifty grand and per house unit
and that that's just out of control. Right what we
did years ago. We looked at it, We looked at
the notion out four years ago and it was decided, oh,
that's going to be too expensive, that that can't work.
So we decided to go down the track of land disposal.
(07:25):
I felt we went down a rabbit hole of land disposal.
And the further we went down and found a problem,
we'd turn left and to give it deeper, and turn
right and digive it deeper, and it gets the stage
where we should pull out of the rabbit hole and
have a look at the big picture again. Now the
government have come in, well not yet, but in the
next four months are coming in with different wastewater standards
(07:45):
that you can do. You will hear some people they're
lowering them. You'll hear that some people say you can
pump raw sewage out to the sea. That would never
happen with what we're doing. It's that you can't do
that with the quality of what we treat it. To
now is good and it will be better with the
new system. So you don't you don't do that. You
(08:07):
don't pump rus yet.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
See so the seventy three million over budget was kinds
of liking at lumping it.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Oh no, no, no, no, we're looking at different ways.
One of the things is that Devotionals is now getting
hooked onto it. Now do you do four kilometers of
doing pipework from devotionals up and down roads up and Downdale,
all sorts of things, or do you run a pipe
up the harbor to get it to the treatment station.
There's all sorts of better ways that we can look
at it, and the guys looking at that at the moment,
that's worst case scenario.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Thank you for coming in every two weeks over the
last nearly three years. Yeah yeah, yeah, And I won't
say anything about all all the very best and I'm
made the best person winning all that care on. We'll
talk to you intimately.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Feel free to call me anytime.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Brilliant, Okay, good on, Thank you Phil, Thank you, Christ
of Men and Film Major.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
For more from Canterbory Mornings with John McDonald, listen live
to news talks, It'd be Christ Church from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from News talks'd B.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now though, it's time to say hello to christ Church
Mere film Major you go, Phil, mate, Well, we're going
to say hello and goodbye. This is our last catch
up because of the what it's three months? We were
on the verge of being three months out from the
local body elections.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Correct? Correct? And that's it just works a lot better
for you guys and us. Did I take a break
from coming to see any time you want to? You
can bring up my comms people and ask me to
come and see you issue.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
But if we did this, it would be seen as
a potential party political broadcast.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Who wouldn't know.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Because you and I were so on the same ways.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Absolutely, and that's a worry you worried about.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
You would not be challenged at all, and it would
be a party political broadcast, wouldn't it. Yeah, I'll be
wearing a Vote Major T shirt and I'll be to
be careful. Are we in the three months yet?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Or not? No?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
We're not, thank you, all right? I don't want to
create any problems with the Electoral Commission, right you told us?
And I can't remember how many weeks ago it was.
But we were talking about the state of after our
medical services in christ Church and also the situation with
the emergency department in christ Church. And you said, oh,
(01:18):
that's quite handy. You said, because I'm going to be
meeting Simmy and Brown in about a week or two
and I'll talk to him about it. What happened with
that conversation.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Yes, I did see him then, but I didn't talk
to him about it then. But I have since rung
him and talked to him about it. As you know.
I went there last Saturday night for an hour and
it was it's outstanding. A lovely lady called Laura showed
me around. I wouldn't say she was embarrassed, but it
was extremely quiet. They don't like using the Q word.
They call it quiet. Two days before they had them
(01:48):
stacked up in the in the hallways because they couldn't
get them in. The hospital was full, so they couldn't
move them up to the hospital. But they were quite
at this stage, but she was good. I talked to
Simeon and I said, right, what can we do here?
Christ Church ed is the busiest one in the country,
(02:10):
And he said, since twenty twenty three, the seventeen hundred
new nurses have come on in the country not there,
and two hundred new doctors have come on. So's he's
fully aware of it, and he's just pushing your head
getting more and more people to services situation.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
What did you tell him? Did you ask him what
you're doing for us and thank you? Or did you
make it clear that it's a pretty surely situation for
New Zealand's second largest city.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
I just said, how are we going? And he said, yes,
we're working on it. We've got we know it's the
busiest one and we're putting more staff in there.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Or why is the city council spending two hundred thousand dollars?
And if you listen to this, I want your views
on this as well. Once Fella's explained the council's position,
Why is the council spending two hundred thousand dollars on
a study looking at bringing in the little you know,
the yellow shuttle bus that operated before the earthquakes. Why
is spending the money on a study to find out
(03:02):
if it should be reintroduced or not when he can
has already seen so we've got eighteen hundred bus movements
in the center of town. We don't think it's needed,
and we'll be the ones making the final decision. Anyways,
why are you blowing two hundred k on it? Well,
good question.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
When we were doing the annual plan was brought up
by one of the counselors and to do a study.
Now I did a bit at home. We can buy
a brand new small bus for one hundred and eighty
five grand. So of course, the way Phil looks at
it is why I waste money spending money on a
on scoping when you can actually get one bus.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So you agree it's a waste of money.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
In my view, it's a waste of money to do
the scoping when you can buy a bus for the
same amount of money. But there had to be a
fair bit of work going on to decide where it
would go, all of that sort of stuff, because in
theory we need too from what I'm told, but we
need to do the scoping. But that was all decided
before I can came along and said, ah, well, we
(03:55):
won't support it, so really we should be looking at
it again and maybe saying well, it's no use spending
two hundred grand. They say it's a bit less than that,
there's no use spending two hundred grand if you're not
going to get the green light anyway.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So you're going to you're gonna push that. Yeah, yes,
we'll have to.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Yes, I would like to see us rethink it if
like there's no use spending the money, if then we're
not going to get the green light from the headmaster,
so to speak.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
And are you saying that this this has all all
come about because one counselor.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Oh no, no, no, no, no no. There's a number
of people. And I did vote for it because at
that stage it was just scoping because I was told, well, Phil,
you don't go and buy a bus, you actually do
you get some business case. And I already had the
bus bought just about in my head do the business case.
But then after all that was done and we voted
(04:44):
that through that it would go into the annual plan,
that's when he can came along.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
So we've got to revisit that and see, okay, right,
it's twelve plast ten I one hundred and eighty. Ten
and eighty is the number. After we talked to Phil,
finished talking and Phil, when I find out what you
think the council should do. Should it go back and
decide against this idea of spending two hundred thousand dollars
on a study into a shuttle bus in the center
of when Ecan says, went on in favor of it,
(05:09):
and we'll make the final decision. You tell me you
stand on this one, Phil. Why is it going to
cost six million bucks to improve intersection safety in Hornby?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Do you know where the two corners are?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
You know, familiar can'ts are used them all the time.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Springs Road Amy's and Springs Road aver Tia. Sadly they
don't line up with each other. So it's that it
needs two intersection rebuilds within probably eighty meters of each other.
And the six million dollars was for the whole nine yards.
Now staff, that's full reconstruction of the road, all sorts
of things, two lots of traffic lights everything. It desperately
(05:43):
needs it out there because there's a lot of horsewall
residents that are coming into town. It's actually a bit
of a bugger. But staff are now going away looking
at if we put one lot of traffic lights in,
that'll take the pressure off the next intersection because the
will be stoppage of traffic, so the giveaway one might
be a lot safer. So that's what they're looking at
the moment. That's the worst case scenario.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
And of course six million bucks.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
There'll be storm water issues of the water Maine issues
underneath it. The yeah, it's it's scary numbers.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
You really very uncomfortable nodding then and acknowledging that. It's
almost that you couldn't bring yourself to say yes.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
When I when I had my contracting company years ago,
I might spend a million dollars once in the blue
moon and think, oh that's a lot of money. Now,
million dollars just runs off your runs off your tongue,
and it's it's scary that everything we do is millions
of dollars.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
So are your old contemporaries taking you for a ride
now that you're the mayor pame, are your civil engineering
contemporaries are they taking your for a No?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
No, no, no no. It just that things do cost
a lot more. But we've got to look at maybe
if we can do one intersection and that that will
save save money.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Okay, all right, speaking of money, how come the water
treatment project is seventy three million dollars over budget. That's
another one you look at, uncomfortable about it.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
And that works out. We had this council the other day.
It's one hundred and fifty grand and per house unit
and that that's just out of control. Right what we
did years ago. We looked at it, We looked at
the notion out four years ago and it was decided, oh,
that's going to be too expensive, that that can't work.
So we decided to go down the track of land disposal.
(07:25):
I felt we went down a rabbit hole of land disposal.
And the further we went down and found a problem,
we'd turn left and to give it deeper, and turn
right and digive it deeper, and it gets the stage
where we should pull out of the rabbit hole and
have a look at the big picture again. Now the
government have come in, well not yet, but in the
next four months are coming in with different wastewater standards
(07:45):
that you can do. You will hear some people they're
lowering them. You'll hear that some people say you can
pump raw sewage out to the sea. That would never
happen with what we're doing. It's that you can't do
that with the quality of what we treat it. To
now is good and it will be better with the
new system. So you don't you don't do that. You
(08:07):
don't pump rus yet.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
See so the seventy three million over budget was kinds
of liking at lumping it.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Oh no, no, no, no, we're looking at different ways.
One of the things is that Devotionals is now getting
hooked onto it. Now do you do four kilometers of
doing pipework from devotionals up and down roads up and Downdale,
all sorts of things, or do you run a pipe
up the harbor to get it to the treatment station.
There's all sorts of better ways that we can look
at it, and the guys looking at that at the moment,
that's worst case scenario.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Thank you for coming in every two weeks over the
last nearly three years. Yeah yeah, yeah, And I won't
say anything about all all the very best and I'm
made the best person winning all that care on. We'll
talk to you intimately.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Feel free to call me anytime.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Brilliant, Okay, good on, Thank you Phil, Thank you, Christ
of Men and Film Major.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
For more from Canterbory Mornings with John McDonald, listen live
to news talks, It'd be Christ Church from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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