The Christchurch City Council is a walking disaster. Or, more to the point, it is a sleepwalking disaster.
And just like Boris Johnson, I think it needs to be tested with a confidence vote.
But, unlike Boris Johnson - who won his confidence vote - I don’t see the city council being quite so lucky.
The thing is, with an outfit like the Christchurch City Council, where do you begin?
The people at the Council were probably hoping that I wouldn’t be commenting about this today. But I can’t help myself. Especially after what it did on Friday.
I’ll get to that. But first, let’s tick off the reasons I think a confidence vote is needed.
Number 1: The stadium cock-up. Yes, costs have gone through the roof around the world but the fact the council doesn’t have a cost-sharing arrangement with the other local councils sewn-up is absolutely shameful. Does that instil confidence?
Number 2: The Bromley smell shambles. I’m sure the $200 pressie cards are making a world of difference. The mayor thinks it’s all to do with poor communication. Dream on.
Number 3: The ridiculous consenting delays. It wasn’t that long ago that the council had its control over consents taken away from it, until it upped its game. But it seems to have gone back to its old ways.
Number 4: Ridiculous, petty behaviour such as what it’s done with the South Christchurch Farmers Market. The Council’s told organisers they have to move because the dead-end road they’ve been using isn’t technically a road - it’s an esplanade - and markets aren’t allowed on esplanades.
Number 5: Trying to hide bad news, as it did on Friday.
The day before the long weekend, the Council released the findings of its latest resident’s survey - which asks ratepayers how they think the Council is doing.
No wonder they wanted to hide it, because it’s come out with an approval rating of 42 percent. Down from 49 percent last year.
In plainspeak, it means 3 out of 5 people in Christchurch think the city council is doing a poor job. And that’s probably putting it way too politely.
So a 42 percent approval this year, a 49 percent approval last year. Way down from the 62 percent approval rating in 2019.
And think back to those days after the earthquakes when we had protests outside the Council building about then-council chief executive Tony Marryatt. Despite all that, the approval rating was around 64 percent.
So 64 percent back then. And it’s got progressively worse to the point where this latest survey has found a 42 percent satisfaction level.
I was reading an article about this yesterday and the council’s chief executive Dawn Baxendale had the gall to imply that the result wasn’t as bad as some other councils.
Which is a bit like the Queensland Reds saying their 37-15 loss to the Crusaders on Friday night wasn’t as bad as the Fijian Drua’s 61-3 loss to the Crusaders a couple of weeks earlier.
Three out of five people think the Christchurch City Council is failing to deliver. Stop trying to dress it up as anything else.
It gets worse, though. Because on Friday, the Council tried to pull one of the oldest PR tricks in the book. In fact, it is so old - and so old hat - that anyone who tries this sort of thing these days always gets caught out. And I can’t imagine why the Council even thought about doing it - let alone went ahead and did it.
It’s that age old trick of putting out bad news on a Friday. Especially on a Friday before a long weekend.
The fact that it did try to pull this stunt on Friday tells me that it is not just a walking disaster, it is a sleepwalking disaster.

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