And so the Bella Vista affair in Tauranga has taken a step towards resolution. After a gruelling meeting yesterday where the affected home owners detailed the pain they went through and a QC presented a report urging the council to do the right thing, councillors voted to buy out the development. Now it’s up to lawyers to negotiate the exact settlement and there appears to be good faith on both sides but make no mistake the cost to the council or their insurers will be between 20 to 30 million dollars. That’s a big mistake to make. What was fascinating yesterday was witnessing the shock and horror on the elected councillors faces.

This has been a slow reveal of a story with revelation coming on top of revelation and the full ramifications of it will come out in the future. For many of the councillors in Tauranga the slow dawning of the scope of the failings were revealed to them not by officials but by the media following the story. This morning the mayor said once the homeowners are sorted the hows and whys will be fully investigated. Every council up and down the country will be looking closely.

It demonstrates just how little real say the elected councillors have over the beast they’re supposed to run. Politicians come and go but the technocrats and bureaucrats are there forever. When people blame mayors for building consent delays they’re attacking the wrong person. It highlights the lack of capacity and capability in the local public service sector, particularly in areas of high growth such as Tauranga and, famously, Auckland and in areas with challenges such as Christchurch.

In these places we actually don’t have enough bureaucrats and technicians and the ones we have are not skilled enough. And this is exacerbating our ongoing housing and infrastructure crises. A caller this morning complained of a 3 month wait and $5000 bill for a building consent in Auckland and compared to a 2 week wait and $800 bill for a similar project in Waihi.

While that is a sign of inefficiency it’s also a sign of the sheer volume of work in a booming area. They’re not coping. At the end of the day the government needs to be taking a good long look at the way we build our towns and cities in this country. They’ve imposed the rules and then left it to local government to police them and they’ve been left floundering under the workload and the responsibility.

Phil Twyford can pluck any number of new house builds out of the air but there’s no way it can happen until the system is streamlined and help is given to our councils. Meanwhile the issue of liability that first arose in the leaky building fiasco continues to fester. The result of which is ratepayers carrying the can for an army of players who can play the game but evade having any skin in it. Currently if anything stuffs up the rats leave the sinking ship and we the ratepayers end out being the last man standing to pick up the bill.

The cracks are now chasms and the people are restless and angry but you can vote in an out as many mayors and councillors as you want but it won’t do a thing until the administrative system beneath them is fixed.