That’s right – Queenstown Lakes District Council’s determination to build a maintenance depot in Queenstown Gardens has become a three-ring circus.

The good news is that QLDC withdrew its application to designate 1125sq m of Queenstown Gardens for a public works depot. The bad news is that QLDC is planning to go ahead with its proposal – they’re trying it on again using a non-notification process.

They’ve simply taken a step back to prepare for their next whack at our historic Gardens. Yep, despite this year’s public outcry, QLDC still wants an industrial depot there.

Last week, around 15 members of the public and Friends of the Gardens attended a meeting at the council chambers to discuss QLDC’s revised depot plans.

We met at the Big Top with mayor Clive Geddes, council bosses Paul Wilson, Roger Taylor and Meaghan Miller, and three councillors. As it turns out, the revised plans only change the building designs – they still include the same old industrial activities we’ve opposed all along.

The mayor kept saying the planner’s report was only concerned with the size of the buildings, completely ignoring the elephant sitting in the corner. The real issues are with QLDC’s industrial activities in the Gardens, activities that have nothing to do with maintaining and preserving this iconic reserve.

The report from Lakes Environmental planner Hanna Afifi was logical and comprehensive, and provided a well-articulated analysis of submitters’ concerns. She discussed all perspectives, including those expressed by 27 objectors.

Her conclusion was that QLDC’s proposal was counter to the Resource Management Act, the Reserves Act and the Queenstown Gardens Recreation Reserve Management Plan.

Afifi’s report recommending QLDC withdraw its intended public works designation was, in my opinion, excellent advice. However, the QLDC troupe should have seen they were walking a tightrope long before their application was publicly notified.

To make matters worse, the mayor confirmed last week that QLDC had received no legal advice on the implications of withdrawing the application and embarking on this new line of attack.

QLDC tried to get an almost identical maintenance depot built a year ago without public input. They failed, thanks mainly to the Friends of the Gardens group.

We’ve since come full circle except that now at least $90,000 of ratepayer money has been squandered.

Presumably, this declared figure doesn’t include all of the big guns’ time at last week’s meeting, with their average salaries probably around $100,000 each.

Yet we residents and ratepayers have seen nothing for our money – in fact, QLDC is using our own money against us in their relentless pursuit of this Gardens depot.

Why? I don’t know.

The mayor’s said QLDC backed off its original application because of concerns over “the community facing off against the community”.

But the community has been quite clear in its opposition to a multi-purpose depot. During this year’s annual plan process, QLDC received more than 60 submissions against allocating more money towards a depot in the Gardens. These submissions were never even discussed by councillors.

This is really about QLDC squaring off against ratepayers. Again, why?

I think mayor Geddes is displaying many of the attributes of a school bully. He’s simply taken our ratepayer money and is doing what he wants with it, as if we have money to burn. This is an all-out assault on our community resources and assets.

Please do not give up. Continue to tell QLDC how you feel about them wasting our money on this inappropriate proposal for an industrial depot in our historic Queenstown Gardens.

Surely at some point they’ll start to listen.

Karen Swaine is an Arrowtown museum archivist and researcher