Park my road where
History is apparently repeating itself and Wellingtonians are bearing the brunt of short sightedness and a lack of inter-departmental government communication.
I'm referring to the announcement of $18 million being poured into a war memorial park.
Not that I'm against the park. It was a good idea when it was first mooted in 1932 and a good idea when Prime Minister Helen Clark revived it in 2004.
We need to acknowledge the hell our vets put up with in the theatre of war and the sacrifices they made.
But unfortunately acknowledging them means ripping up a section of Wellington's newly constructed inner city bypass and shifting Buckle Street about 30 or 40 metres north.
Why can't we do it once do it right for a change.
I mean, if plans for the park have been around since there was only one world war to remember why can't we coordinate constructing it with surrounding roading projects?
The Government bought the land for the park from its road builder Transit New Zealand, the same Transit who built Wellington's bypass.
Both of them had plans that crossed over so you'd like to think they could have talked about timeframes and such for parks and roads so the bitumen didn?t have to be ripped up before it had time to set.
No it's easier to work in isolation.
It just means we're paying for the same road twice.
It's not like there's plenty of other things for Transit to spend money on.
The irksome part is that the announcement came at the same time it was revealed that regional petrol taxes may be introduced to fund roading projects.
I know it's user pays (and pays and pays and pays), but the user should be able to have faith that they're paying to get the job done properly.