LOCALLY OWNED SINCE FOREVER
24 Oct - 30 Oct
LAKES WEEKLY BULLETIN
No 924
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AT un stm UR ct a s E io IN n SI s DE
Time passes but our frustrations remain the same This week, a 30-year-old copy of the Mountain Scene’s Box 299 dropped into my inbox. It was a sort of Letter to the Editor and Winge page. It’s fascinating reading for while the community has grown dramatically, the bandwagon issues haven’t changed. Significant space was given over to fears of Queenstown being swamped with over-tourism and that council was out of touch, misjudging community wishes and spending on senseless projects that locals were generally too apathetic to object to. Rightly, it was suggested that left special interest groups and council unfettered freedom to follow agendas that don’t marry with locals aspirations. One thing that has changed, in fairness, is the shopping. Back then, there was only the CBD, so there was a major push to build a shopping complex in Frankton, which was getting plenty of commentary. A place where locals could shop and not have to travel to Alex or ‘Tarras’ for basics. This new complex HAD to have a full line supermarket, to keep the sky-high Queenstown food prices in check, which at the time were 32% higher than the rest of the country. We now have four supermarkets, so ‘tick’, job done, although food prices remain higher than elsewhere, along with the petrol, so that bit didn’t go so well.
Tamariki & whānau from Te Puna Ako o Tāhuna on stage at Central Lakes Polyfest last week performing their kapa haka bracket. Left to right Derrin Thomas, Āio ThomasFordham (9 months), Rangituamatotoru Elijah Taylor (5) Adrianne Taylor (on guitar), Hikurangi Tristan Taylor (3), Chelsea Hemopo and Caleb Cribb (2)
The supermarket push came with a warning that encouraging shopping in Frankton would lead to the gutting of local shops downtown and turn the CBD into a tourist ‘ghetto’. You could argue town’s now definitely for the tourists, but at least in recent years, there’s been more galleries, high end stores and fewer activity booking providers (which looked to be taking over pre-Covid), and I see plenty of locals walking around, and there’s a good professional community still. Parking’s still a gripe though, and was back then. One letter writer, in 1995, suggested Five Mile might lead to free flowing roads and ample parking in Queenstown .. pigs might fly!! Generally, there was a dissatisfaction with council and that definitely remains. I wonder what they’d have made of a 14.5% rates rise. QLDC sent out its annual Quality of Life survey last week. I’d wager the council’s own scorecard won’t see an improvement, given the rates rise, general lack of austerity, water issues, housing crisis and the rest. Housing was another issue that made the letters page, along with public apathy toward local politics, which the appalling local body voting numbers suggest hasn’t changed either. There’s plenty of consultation - on trees, speed limits and development in the last month alone - but many believe even when they engage, they’re not really being listened to. I wonder how many of these issues we will be talking about in 2053? David Gibbs
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