Auckland councillor Cameron Brewer says the new council needs to “put its foot down” with the Government over the placement of prisons in and around Auckland.
As the Corrections Minister Judith Collins was yesterday opening the new prison, situated right alongside the motorway at Eden Terrace, Councillor Brewer, who is chair of Auckland Council's Planning & Urban Design Forum, was declaring the site is not the right place for an eight-storey prison tower.
“The official opening of the $218 million Mt Eden prison tower is a big disappointment for a city desperate to improve its built environment," he said.
“At the peak of the real estate market, the Department of Corrections made the decision for Mt Eden Prison to stay when they could have got an absolute packet for this piece of land.
“They should have taken the chance to sell up, relocate and expand in a more sustainable and appropriate location. It was a bad mistake and unfortunately Aucklanders will have to live with it for generations.
“Unfortunately the desire to keep remand prisoners closer to their families and to the courts, won over good urban design. It looks a bit better than most people anticipated but it’s a terrible gateway into central Auckland. Let's not forget that over 160,000 cars pass it every day.”
Cr Brewer wants his council to get tough with the Government over the placement of prisons in and around Auckland.
He said it was Opposition Leader Phil Goff who as former Corrections Minister advocated for and signed off the prison extension back in 2007. He believes that although Mr Goff boasted about the facilities four years ago, the Opposition Leader won't be keen to take much credit now.
“Alarmingly a previous council's urban design panel also signed it off and it was approved by council-appointed planning commissioners,” he says.
On the issue of building height, he says a previous Auckland City Council’s urban design panel concluded in October 2006 “that the proposed building heights represented a good balance between the department’s site-capacity requirement, retention of the heritage features and minimisation of visual impacts”.
The new 554-bed Mt Eden prison building, gatehouse and support buildings will replace the existing Mt Eden Prison which was opened in 1888. The facility will incorporate Auckland Central Remand Prison (ACRP) and be known as Mt Eden Corrections Facility (MECF). It will provide accommodation for up to 966 prisoners, mainly those on remand.
The facility will be managed by Serco, a British company that manages prisons and other infrastructure around the world. The transition to Serco management will begin today and is scheduled to be completed in August.
Meanwhile, a New Zealand Herald news story about the prison’s opening reminds readers that the new prison faced heated debate and controversy last year when it was revealed that it would tower over the Southern Motorway and overlook nearby Auckland Grammar School.
Then-mayor John Banks called it "an architectural monstrosity".