Finally...Len Brown,

steps into the Turua Street, St Heliers dispute. Better late than never from Len Brown, he was starting to appear overawed by actually being Mayor. The same contractor who knocked down the Palace Hotel on Mayor Len's orders had his diggers on site at Turua Street after the floors were taken out of the Spanish style cottages yesterday. The street was largely blocked off Wednesday by local residents wanting to preserve the historic nature of the village.

I spoke with an unsuccessful tenderer for the demolition job and took the opportunity to ask him what he would have done in the face of the protest had he won the job. He told me he would have packed up and left until it was sorted out and recalled a job 30 years ago when he was a supervisor at the Ministry of Works tasked with laying paths, building a retaining wall and taking out a line of trees on the Oakley Hospital side of the Whau Creek. When they arrived on the due date to start the work there were people who had chained themselves to the trees in the hope of saving them. They told the supervisor that the trees had been planted during WW2 in memory of local men who had lost their lives. He ordered his crew away and told his managers they wouldn't be doing anything until the issue was sorted out. Eventually, it was decided the trees would stay. He tells me they are still there today and as the people of the city know the city didn't fail, no catastrophe followed, civil order was not broken because of the preservation of those trees and what they represented to the local people.

I saw a news clip of security person tearing down a sign that an elderly person set against the temporary fence outside the houses. Somebody that probably had a belief in the land and in memory as the guide into the future confronted by a physically dominating person having no feeling for what they might not see or be able to understand. But tonight the houses are safe and may be into the future. Congratulations to Len Brown and the developers Mark and Sandra Markham for listening to the people of the village who stood up to be counted.