MORE HENDO HIJINKS

Failed property developer Dave Henderson is back in court today as another creditor seeks to wind up his company Property Ventures.

Meanwhile The Press is reporting that an innocent playcentre association is yet another financial victim of Hendo's.

It's also an issue that raises more questions about the Christchurch City Council's relationship with Henderson and its decision to buy his five central city properties.

One of the five properties that the council bought from libertarian Dave was Sydenham Square - for an extravagant $4 million.

The Canterbury Playcentre Association owns a corner of the Sydenham Square site and was in talks with Henderson to move into new premises.

However that deal collapsed.

Kathy Bouma of the Canterbury Playcentre Association says that Henderson promised to pay the legal and moving expenses. The association spent some $30,000 on legal fees before the deal collapsed.

Hendo has resorted to his familiar tactic of claiming ignorance. He says that he was unaware of the $30,000 bill.

But The Press has caught him out.

It has seen an invoice sent to Hendo in December 2007, detailing the legal fees.

Hendo wrote back twice confirming the receipt of the invoice and explaining why he would not pay it.

But our mate Dave told The Press:

"I know nothing of this expense. Can you please send me the breakdown for it? Given they haven't relocated and are now pulling out of the deal, what could the expense be for?"

Now the Canterbury Playcentre Association says it is no longer willing to sell the site which means the Christchurch City Council has more complications because the association site had been penciled in as the location of an access road.

It should be remembered that the decision to fork out some $17 million for the five Henderson properties was steamrollered through council by Mayor Sideshow Bob, aided by council CEO Tony Marryatt and councillors like Sue Wells and Barry Corbett.

The councillors were expected to make a decision on the buy-out with just three days notice.

The council also side-stepped the need to get the public's view by treating the purchases as separate deals, with none over the $5m mark that is one of the criteria under the council's policy guidelines for determining whether community consultation occurs.

The council did not obtain an independent valuation of the Sydenham site and instead relied on one provided by Henderson.

Justifying the deal Marryatt said the deal had been 'sweetened' by the inclusion of '$6 million of plans and resource consents' Henderson had for the Sydenham site.