Bromley 'Open Space' say needed

The Open Space Strategy is a plan that aims to connect the greenspaces of the City with attractive routes and, where necessary, add facilities to areas with less open space than others. Nevertheless, the Open Space Strategy is only partly about looks, reducing our carbon footprint, or the health of the City's occupants, despite what it says.

It is a strategy designed to draw the increasingly Eco-conscious tourist to stop in Christchurch, stay in the area and spend their money here. Well, not here in Bromley - we aren't part of that plan, despite a need to clearly link and inform people about our historic cemeteries, sports grounds and pukeko nesting wetlands.

We have the spectrum of Christchurch's eco-system within a small area...... and of course a couple of Rugby World Cup matches being played at the Linwood Rugby Club next year.......but the Council wants everyone to go to Banks Peninsular. I don't mind the occasional drive to Banks Peninsular myself, but honestly, I have so many interesting and fantastic open spaces around here to spend my spare time in and to show visitors, why would I go anywhere else?

But never mind, we are expected to have a proportion of our rates doled out to Banks Peninsular so that they can prosper with tourist money whilst areas like Bromley are abandoned so they can be exploited and ruined by property developers with no connection with the area and a lack of social conscience.

And what about our 'quiet neighbours' in Bromley?  The neglect of local cemeteries, occasionally used as dumping grounds for people not willing to pay to dispose of their rubbish at the nearby Eco-centre and acting as uninterrupted honey pots for graffiti vandals and substance abusers has led to the need for dedicated volunteers to oversee, tidy and garden  these sacred spaces and ensure that the Council's obligations are being met.

The state of Linwood Cemetery was so bad a few years ago, that the Council was pressured by the Friends of Linwood Cemetery Trust to put an Historic Cemeteries Conservation Plan into place.  

The Cemeteries are managed under the Green Space department of the Council, so you would expect that the Open Space Strategy would have a significant plan in place for cemeteries in the city.  They do - it's called the Cemetery Master Plan...... but it is still at the conceptual stage and is the third cemetery plan in about 20 years paid for by rate payers - the other two not amounting to any action.  

So by approving the Open Space Strategy (the closing date for comment was on Friday 5th Feb) there is an automatic acceptance of the Cemetery Master Plan........ whatever and whenever that turns out to be, if indeed it does see the light of day.  

To me, the Open Space Strategy process has yet again prevented Bromley residents from having a voice about City initiatives that directly affect their community.  We should not be complacent and trusting in the current City Council's strategies and initiatives however prettily they are packaged.  

Our local counsellors are regularly out-voted by the profit-hungry 'money first, people second' majority that appears to act without proper consultation because time for public comment shrinks the 'bottom line'. These processes and plans affect all Bromley residents (alive and dead!).  We need to be vigilant and support strategies and people who develop our community, not ignore or fragment it.