The fight in Balmoral goes on....

A great night was had by all who attended the burlesque evening on the 7th of November. Valuable funds were raised to support our Environment court appeal. Thank you very much to the Juice Bar, the Lemon Honey's, Tony Bambina and the Hootchy Girls and Erin for supporting us.

In the past weeks since the surprising decision by the commissioners to allow the emasculated McDonalds restaurant in our residential neighbourhood the community has been discussing its future plans.

For those of you unfamiliar with New Zealand planning law - including most of the residents, once the decision by the independant commisioners has been made, there is a period of 18 days during which the parties may appeal to the Environment Court of New Zealand. This is an expensive undertaking. The lodgment fee is NZ$500 and we would have to pay for a lawyer and expert witnesses to stand up to the paid McDonalds people. By the time the appeal process is over we would not be getting much change out of NZ$80,000.

However at a well attended public meeting in Balmoral on the 10th of August the attendees voted unanimously to take the fight to the Environment court.

This means that the Balmoral Community Group  takes the Auckland City Council to court (yes, the Council that recommended that it not be granted consent). So we must now raise money to fight the council that uses our taxes to defend against us. How perverted is that?! Given the mayor of Auckland is on our side, it will be an interesting political and legal battle.

McDonalds have also appealed at the same time to argue against some of the conditions of consent such as reduced hours and removal of the 10 metre "Golden Arches" sign. Apparently they are not as "pleased with the decision" as Mark Hawthorn previously stated. They also don't feel that their argument that "living on the edge of a business area residents should have different expectations of amentity" works the other way as well. 

So now we go back to fund raising - we need money to pay for our Environment Lawyer and the expert witnesses we will need in court. This will be a completely different level of fight to the hearing process we have just been through. Witnesses in the Environment Court can be cross examined - something we would all have loved to do with the paid "experts" wheeled in by McDonalds during the hearing.

Please remember that donations are tax deductible, so please help raise the money we need to prevent this badly placed "social amenity".

Photos of the Balmoral site and area

Wiremu Street before McDonalds Ruin the character of our neighborhood Cut down the cherries....One of the busiest intersections in Auckland
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