Do you smell the beginnings of a campaign to soften up the good people of Christchurch to the idea of hocking off the city council's community housing?
Hot on the heels of Mayor Sideshow Bob Parker raising the prospect of gettiing rid of the council's housing stock, an editorial in today's Press newspaper has also questioned why the council should keep its social housing programme.
The Press however had nothing to say about Parker's election commitment to not only keeping community housing but expanding it. It appears that the newspaper thinks reneging on election commitments is just fine. So much for local democracy.
Meanwhile an increasing number of council tenants are not paying any rent until the council readjusts the rent to the previous rate.
As well council tenants are angry that they have not yet been reimbursed for the extra, and now invalid, rent they have paid since the rise on April 1.
Matters have not been helped by the council stopping all non-essential maintenance on council flats - and not telling tenants.
Some council tenants are not stuck with jobs barely half-completed.
Remember folks, this is what Sideshow Bob said last year when he was looking for votes:
'I believe community housing is a vital part of our city.'
Yeah, right.
Perhaps The Press could do an editorial on Parker's barefaced lies?
Well dude the Press was pretty solid in its coverage of the Henderson property buy up fiasco; So I was surprised to read the consideration proposal that Community Housing could be a might be left entirely to Government.
ReplyDeleteHowever the Press did say that Parker and his team are looking bad over this, and your letter of September last year should surely be of interest to them.
There is something really wrong with this Council and Parker himself, but when people say to me this is a one term Mayor I think who can get such a well known brand up and running in two years.
By the way Chrissie Williams main point was that the decision to end maintenance never arrived on the council table. Executive decision will be rubber stamped here folks.
The Press gave headlines as
' Mayor does not have Council approval' or words to that effect.