Sage Eugenie: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sage Eugenie: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 05 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7165. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
EUGENIE SAGE (Green) 
: 
 Tena koe. Yes the Green Party is not supporting this bill because of the way in which this whole issue of Lookout Point has been dealt with. I certainly recognise the previous speaker Nikki Kaye and the considerable time and effort that the Local Government and Environment Committee went to to look at the evidence. But the Green Party has been convinced more by the submissions that were put forward by the residents of Oamaru and the evidence that they brought—particularly people like Mr Monks and Helen Stead—that the initial decision to vest the land as a reserve was not made in error. That was indicated by their evidence the photographs that showed that the land was treated throughout the 1890s and the early 1900s as a reserve in terms of Arbor Day plantings and for other recreation and that it had been treated that way by the council by being designated in the council plan as a reserve until that designation was uplifted in order for the council to proceed with the Forrester Heights subdivision. 
So it is an issue of principle because the council in deciding to proceed with that subdivision which would raise funds for the restoration of the Oamaru Opera House did not consult well with its community. It went through a non-notified resource consent process. So there is a considerable amount of resentment amongst people in Oamaru who care about this land who use it for recreation and who enjoy the views that it provides over the town and over the harbour that the council proceeded on a non-notified basis. When that consent lapsed the council proceeded to renew it so that it did not lapse and none of this was done with any opportunity for the public to get involved. 
Clause 7 of this bill would by making the land endowment land allow the council to proceed with the subdivision and to sell it. So Supplementary Order Paper 150 in my name changes that clause so that it would not see the land as being endowment land for the council to dispose of. It would remain as reserve land because there is substantial public value and community value in this land remaining administered by council and open to all rather than being subdivided. 
 It is unfortunate that the Oamaru Opera House has not got other sources of revenue that could be used for its restoration. It is also interesting that members opposite are very supportive of the protection of heritage in Oamaru but we do not see that same commitment in Christchurch in terms of the way the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Act legislation has been used to expedite the destruction of heritage there. 
But we have had a difficult issue in front of the select committee with natural heritage in terms of Lookout Point and its recreational values as against the historic heritage of the white stone buildings and the council wanting to free up some money to restore those. But that is why we are opposing this part of the bill in relation to Lookout Point and that is why the Supplementary Order Paper is there: so that the council cannot just dispose of it and go ahead with the subdivision that it has resource consent for.