There are times in your life when you have got to get up on your hind legs and stand your ground. And I absolutely support those Flaxmere residents who are saying “We don’t want a Department of Corrections facility in the middle of our community.”
Let’s be honest about it. Despite the fact that the Department of Corrections call these people clients, they are criminals. And they are recidivist criminals. You don’t get PD for a first offence. Why should these criminals be encouraged to congregate in the middle of a good suburb like Flaxmere?
It appears that the Department of Corrections has a policy of bringing their undesirable clients to the centre of a community near you. They have just decided to open one of their “client service centres” – in the centre of Gisborne. The local Government there turned down the application but of course the Department took it to the Environment Court. The Department has unlimited financial resources so, of course they won. Just as they will in Flaxmere.
In Napier we have the same problem. I must declare an interest in the Napier situation because I own property next door to the proposed centre. The Napier “drop in centre” for the dross of our society is planned for Taradale Road, one of the main arterial routes into the Napier CBD. In what way, I ask, does such a centre belong in a light industrial area, with residential property on the other side of the street? It gets worse. The residents on the other side of the street were not even accorded the status of being affected parties. How could they possibly not be affected?
The access and egress to local businesses has largely been ignored. It seems no one cares that congestion, lack of parking and an inability to bring supplies to established business will dramatically damage the very comfortable relationship between light industry on one side of the road and pleasant residences on the other.
Or do those who control such matters on a local level know, that us poor locals don’t have the resources to take on, in the Environment Court, a Government Department more interested in serving their clients, the local criminal fraternity, then they are in protecting the law abiding businesses and residential locals.
Frankly it makes me sick in the guts to find in this wonderful country of ours, that the law breakers and those charged with the responsibility of attending to them, get more consideration than those of us who go about our day in a lawful and peaceful manner.
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April 28th, 2010 at 8:37 am
Why don’t we join forces?
Cr Poulain, Flaxmere, Hastings District Council