Meeting with Council Transport Committee- Thursday

[crashe]

Draft of what i will say. Input is welcome, but bear in mind that we have ONLY 5 minutes to speak. And it is enforced. A read through of what i ahve so far is 6.5 minutes - I can cut that down to 5. But there is no room for any more.

The members may 9or may not) ask questions, which gives scope for elaboration.

Surely more than one is allowed to speak......


I know out at the community board meetings out west..... each person who writes their name down at the beginning of the meeting gets to speak.... for 5 minutes.

Then the board will either thank the person for speaking or ask them some questions.

All up it is no more than 10 minutes per person.



Is it not the same for this as well??????

[PirateJafa]

Might want to point out the latest events in Wellington too.

[HungusMaximist]

Well, it seems that the only way to get heard these days is 'drama' so I reckon we should all cause a scene and get some drama going. Especially to all you 'Drama Queens' out there, this a chance for you to speak out!

[Squiggles]

Ixion i shall see if i can drum up some more solid figures about parking outside uni (space vs number of known bikes that park there), i suspect it will be a very snug fit from just those on our lists

[Ixion]

Well, it seems that the only way to get heard these days is 'drama' so I reckon we should all cause a scene and get some drama going. Especially to all you 'Drama Queens' out there, this a chance for you to speak out!

No ! Decidedly the worst possible thing to do at this stage. There's a time and a place for aggressive action, but this isn't it.

So far we are looking at bureaucrats who are being pricks. The council (councillors, not bureaucrats) are the people who can most easily tell them to pull their heads in. But if we are seen as a bunch of greedy troublemakers, why should they? If they tell us to piss off, then is the time to invoke direct action (but not by making a scene though).

There will also be lots and lots of security guards there, so all that creating a scene would do is get us kicked out fast. And I doubt that John Public is going to have much sympathy for a bunch of bikers who got thrown out of a council meeting for throwing a tanty about not being allowed to park on the footpath.

Crashe, each council sets its own rules about public forum. Waitemata City may be different to Auckland. But even Auckland, the full council (what this is) is much more anal than the community boards. Five minuts per deputation is the rule (you can have more than one speaker, and if someone from the uni club wants to speak about the uni issue I'm cool with that, but it's five minutes total). If there's no other speakers, they sometimes relax it a bit, but there are three otherrs on thursday (agenda here ) so I expect they will be fairly strict.

Issues about improperly issued tickets for Wof etc , those are bureacratic issues not policy. Council make policy. We can take that up with the bureaucrats when we talk with them aboutwhat comes out of the council meeting (hopefully)

[Squiggles]

but there are three otherrs on thursday (agenda here )

BRONZE

[motorbyclist]

i'll be there so don't leave without me or i'll get lost looking for the place

i might be a tad late... anyone going via panmure roundabout on the way there?

[Squiggles]

Will take you under 20 minutes to get to us from there mb, try and be there ontime!

[HungusMaximist]

Will you be riding your TL?

Cause it's about time you dust it out!

[Ixion]

Debrief:

A very productive meeting.

Presentation well received. We managed to set one half of the committee at the throats of the other half (whilst we sat quietly watching). Which is good, when knaves fall out honest bikers come into their own. And we now have allies.

After much envenomed invective and reference to standing orders etc, the chairman was obliged to accept an amendment moved by Clr Easte, requiring the GM, Parking (our old friend Mr Tomlinson) to prepare a memo for the committe by the March meeting, detailing what he is doing about motorcycle parking. I will be contacting Mr Tomlinson in the next few days to suggest what he should put in that memo (since we were referred to him by the Committee to get something done!). Clr Easte was seconded by Clr Fryer. Clr Bhatnagar got derailed in silly suggestons about motorcycles paying parking fees, which I said was unworkable, and none of the other councillors were interested in that idea.

The committeee broadly accepted the arguments that motorycles are a GoodThing. And that we should be considered in town planning decisions (that's a big win) . And that more motorcycle parking is needed.

And after we withdrew Clr Miller came out to see us and Crashe detailed the exploits of the infamous parking Warden 71, and Clr Miller has offered to sort out the said parking warden.

We also have the committees approval to hit up the community boards to provide parking spaces in suburban areas

So, from all of you, I need details of suitable palces,. you need to tell me where you want to park. Needs to be practical, and not involve demolishing stuff, or forcing out other road users etc. Over to you, ask for it or lose it.

Thanks to all the uni dudes who came along

[Ragingrob]

I must say well done on the presentation, well worded and very well produced to the councillors, even if they do act like 10 year olds!

[motorbyclist]

seriously, could the two old guys in charge of the comittee sound any more boring? omg

and that guy talking about a large "loss of income" my converting car parks to bike parks needs to think about the implications of what he's saying.... maybe he approves of bikes being ticketed on the footpath? maybe he thinks a solution to the very expensive problems of air pollution and traffic conjestion isn't worth the slight loss in parking revenue? and what about all the damage large 4WDs and other needlessly heavy vehicles do to the roads in the city?

[Ragingrob]

My girlfriend came up with the idea that alongside bike parks they should have little locker style things you can pay to use, so you can leave your helmet and gear etc with your bike! Any they're making revenue through that rather than the actual parking.

[crashe]

Yep that was fun to watch the 'in-house' fighting amongest themselves.

I guess the top two haven't got to really know the new councillers that have just been voted in by the Auckland city ratepayers....
I reckon they could have fun over the next 3 years..... lol.


Yep headway was made....... and officer 71 isn't going to have a very nice xmas this year..... as the ranks bollock out the next rank below them and so on and so on until they get down to officer 71.....


Nice to meet all you uni boys and gal..... and to all the others that turned up....

After the meeting, we all trotted off to have lunch......... once Hanne had found her missing glove...... that apparently got 'flattened' by some wheels.... got it all sorted out by blowing into it.

Klingon and I checked out the bikes and scooters down in the carpark.... was a really old vespa there....

[Squiggles]

Lets go find us some spots to park in then, note em down and take a piccy on your cell, then post them up! I'll try and put them on a nice little list with a map.