Hello and welcome to this page to hear a bit more about my proposals to make Otago a better place to live. It's great to have more than 150 words to do it!
My belief is that people in general don't care as much about the Regional Council as much as the city council, and indeed I see it as a 'secret council' about which little is known by the general community. As opposed to the DCC, I don't think most people even know who the head of the Regional Council is.
However, I live in Port Chalmers which is very much influenced by the Otago Regional Council as it owns Port Otago, by far the most important business in the town and one of the most important businesses in Otago. Immediately it may strike the impartial observer as a conflict of interest that the ORC runs the port, as an agency for environmental management is running a business that has a huge environmental impact, but I am not so concerned with that. I am more concerned that people don't seem to be aware or concerned by it.
That is just an example of how the influence of the ORC goes under the radar for a lot of people.
I have three basic issues upon which I am standing.
Cooperation between the DCC and ORC
The first is having the ORC integrated with the DCC, particularly in the public transport domain."
What this means is that the DCC and the ORC should work as one team for Dunedin and Otago, because what's good for Otago is good for Dunedin anyway as it is the biggest city in Otago. This is particularly the case for public transport. At the moment we have the ridiculous situation that the DCC runs the bus stops and the ORC runs the buses. It would make much more sense to have collective decision making and have it under one roof. Instead of the DCC and ORC working separately they should be working out of the same building.
The way to achieve this is with a unitary council. Auckland has one council based in the city and Dunedin has two. This is obviously a strange situation.
See: Investigating unitary council deprioritised says DCC
Chalmers Property investment in Otago
Just as it owns Port Otago without comment so the ORC owns Chalmers Property - The property investment division of Port Otago. And where does it invest? Well aside from various bits of reclaimed land around the harbour it is in Auckland and Hamilton. Infact according to the ODT Port Otago owns over 120 million dollars worth of property in the upper North Island. That is money that could have been invested in Otago but wasn't.
There may be an argument that the ORC could expect better returns by investing in Auckland and Hamilton rather than Dunedin but Queenstown property values have grown just as much as Auckland and so they could have invested in Otago and got just as good a return.
Parking for the people
The ORC owns vacant land near the CBD which could be used for parking in order alleviate the parking issues that the DCC has created in Dunedin.
Direct road to Central Otago
Speaking of Queenstown as a growth area it is about time there was a more direct route between Dunedin and the Central Otago / Lakes district area. It is about 170km in a straight line between Queenstown and Dunedin, but you have to drive at least 278km to get there from Dunedin. The reason for this of course is that you first have to head south along the coast for about 40 minutes before you even start heading towards Queenstown.
The solution to this problem is to as a starting point seal the Old Dunstan road from Dunedin to Alexandra. This would save at least 20km and create a new world class driving experience between Dunedin and Queenstown. If the road could be straightened then it would save 30 or 40km.
If this doesn't seem significant, just think that the difference between the two routes between Queenstown and Christchurch is 10km. So poor old Waimate misses out on millions of dollars of tourist traffic each year for the sake of 10km.
The most simple way to reduce the number of km's between Queenstown and Dunedin would be to seal the road between Waipori and Lawrence as below:
v's the other ways: 
Reintroduce the Southerner train service
Best and easiest way to boost tourism to Dunedin would be to reintroduce the Southerner as far as Dunedin. This would mean that people coming down the country by train would hopefully end up in Dunedin rather than Christchurch. It would also help by linking the Taieri Gorge to the wider network.
The Southerner can't be seen as a transport service any more than the cruise ships are a transport service. Rather it should be seen as a scenic activity.
What has this got to do with the Regional Council? Well, it has previously looked at subsidising the Southerner. I suggest that it does so again on a trial basis, as it may actually be commercially viable with the increase in tourist numbers to New Zealand over the past decade.
South Dunedin
The ORC and The DCC need to jointly develop a plan for South Dunedin based on current projections of what will happen in future.
This plan then needs to be put out to public consultation and the councils need to actually listen to what the community has to say about it.
In my view future development of South Dunedin should not be precluded
South Dunedin’s main problem is not flooding, but poverty and economic deprivation and the risk is that any pullback from South Dunedin will exacerbate this issue further. If an overarching threat from the likes of sea level rise is identified, then residents should be compensated by central government in relation to that as they were in the Christchurch earthquake.
Harbour cycleway
The ORC has worked on the harbour cycleway. I am strongly in favour of completing the harbour cycleway between St Leonards and Port Chalmers.
Airport Bus
It would be a great addition to public transport in the city if the ORC could assist in developing an Airport bus service in order to reduce the cost and environmental effect of getting between the airport and the city.
About me
I was born in Dunedin and hold a degree in Philosophy from the University of Otago. My background is in tourism: Glenorchy Air in Queenstown and my own business, Exploring New Zealand Limited, based in Port Chalmers. I run cruise ship tours and general charters. I am married with two young children (11 and 8) who attend our local school.
Page authorized by Andrew Rutherford 107 Hall Road, Sawyers bay, Port Chalmers, Dunedin.
I would be pleased to have your vote in the elections for the ORC.
