Napier Centennial Gardens - The White Elephant
"A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc. considered expensive but without equivalent utility or value relative to its capital (acquisition) and/or operational (maintenance) costs."
This official government information request below was obtained two years ago.
An official government information request confirms that the Napier City Council has spent $1 million on Centennial Gardens maintenance over the past five years. Chris Penk has now responded to my repeated requests to intervene in the Crown's decision to reject my replica lighthouse proposal. Both our emails below:
I have been working on this proposal for five years, and during that time, the Napier City Council spent $1million on the limestone mine and the artificial waterfall. With that amount of money, the entire prison property could have been transformed into an amazing tourist attraction. It is completely illogical to continue in this manner. New Zealand has real waterfalls all over the country for visitors to enjoy. So why continue this ongoing waste of resources in the mine when the prison is literally rotting away across the road? Let's at least match the funds to LINZ so the prison is looked after equally. An email was sent to Chris Penk asking for intervention.
Kia Ora Chris
I have finally received responses from LINZ and Heritage New Zealand, but not from you Chris. I am unsure why you chose not to respond to my email and request for intervention regarding the disappointing response from LINZ to my proposal to preserve New Zealand’s oldest prison. https://napierlighthouse.co.nz/proposal/
As I mentioned before, the Napier City Council has invested $1 million over the past five years to maintain an artificial waterfall in the old prison mine. Over the last 25 years, they have spent $4 million on this project, with projections to spend another $4 million in the next 25 years. This ongoing expenditure on a dysfunctional feature, the artificial waterfall, should be reconsidered in the Napier Centennial Gardens. The funds used by the Council to maintain the artificial waterfall would be better allocated towards the upkeep of the prison itself, rather than the prison mine.
A reallocation of resources would be a more logical and sensible approach for the future. Why should the Council spend another $4 million in the next 25 years on that mine if the prison across the road continues to be neglected by LINZ? I understand that the prison is Government property and the mine is Council property, so the difference in financial resources between what LINZ has spent on the prison and what the Council allocates towards the old prison mine does not make sense.
Currently, the Council spends $200,000 annually in the Napier Centennial Gardens. I wonder how much money LINZ has allocated towards the maintenance of the Napier prison in the last five years compared to what the Council spends in that old limestone mine. If LINZ had spent $ 1million on the prison in the last five years, the prison could have been completely restored into a tourist attraction, including a small replica lighthouse. The 'Official Government Information Request' about the dysfunction in the old limestone mine can be viewed here: https://napierlighthouse.co.nz/limestonemine
Our new government prides itself on wanting to save money and stop wastage of resources yet here we are, still wasting millions of dollars in an old limestone mine while the historic Old Napier Prison receives no resources from the government for maintenance. It simply does not make sense, Chris! Please have a look at this neglect by LINZ and please, please Chris, allocate more resources towards LINZ so that this historic prison is looked after in the future, not just the fake waterfall across the road. It does not make sense!
Chris Penk's email reply below confirms that the government is not taking any action regarding the dire prison situation. This supports LINZ in allowing the prison to deteriorate further without a future management plan. This is evident the government wants to dispose of there property. Good luck!
2024-08-21 - Hon Chris Penk to Mario Schmidt
Water at Napier's waterfall stops falling
Hawkes Bay Today By Laura Wiltshire 6 May, 2019
Maintenance work on a Napier pond has stopped the city's only waterfall from falling. The waterfall in Centennial Gardens has been out of action for several months, a Napier City Council spokesperson said. She said the Infrastructure team at NCC have been working on a project on the pond which feeds the waterfall, including design work.
They are also obtaining a building consent for repair work which needs to be done on the bridge in the gardens, which is being done at the same time as the pond maintenance. "The actual physical work is due to begin soon but is weather-dependent. The pool has been drained to conserve water due to leaks. The waterfall is man-made.
The gardens were initially built by prisoners in 1974, to commemorate the centenary of the city. It was built on a former quarry, with all the soil from the gardens having to be transported to the site, at the corner of Coote Rd, Marine Parade and Breakwater Rd, at the bottom of Bluff Hill.
The waterfall is fed from a lower pool with the water pumped into the main pool, before being pumped to the top of the cliff where it falls down the 40m rock face. In turn, spray from the waterfall has allowed plants to grow on the rock face. The garden is now looked after by Napier City Council gardeners.
Work to reopen Centennial Gardens in Napier tops $300,000. The extensive repairs that allowed Centennial Gardens and its signature waterfall to reopen to the public cost Napier City Council $323,000.
Hawkes Bay Today By Shannon Johnstone 22 Jan, 2020
The investigation into what work needed to be done started in 2018 and repair work started in June 2019. The gardens were closed off to the public in June 2019, after an investigation into what work needed to be done to the garden. The man-made waterfall was also out of action during that time. Repairs were done to the pond, pipework, bridge and signage and the garden, including the waterfall, reopened on Christmas Eve. Not including signage, the total cost of the repairs to date is $322,951, Debra Stewart NCC Team Leader for Parks, Reserves and Sportsgrounds said.
The upper and lower ponds were lined with concrete and a water proofing membrane. The membrane lining cost $125,852 and the concrete cost $55,864. The ponds pipework and water supply operations were improved at a cost of $25,224 for the new main water connection and $21,087 for directional drilling of the new pipe.
The supports and foundations of the pedestrian bridge were renewed. A further $40,395, was spent on the cost of management/design and $7593 was spent on design consultants. New signage is set to be installed next month. "The extent of the work which needed to be done was unknown at the start of the project and added to the overall cost, such as replacing the support structure for the bridge," Stewart said. This did not qualify for an exemption under the 2004 Building Act.
"A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc. considered expensive but without equivalent utility or value relative to its capital (acquisition) and/or operational (maintenance) costs."
This official government information request below was obtained two years ago.
An official government information request confirms that the Napier City Council has spent $1 million on Centennial Gardens maintenance over the past five years. Chris Penk has now responded to my repeated requests to intervene in the Crown's decision to reject my replica lighthouse proposal. Both our emails below:
I have been working on this proposal for five years, and during that time, the Napier City Council spent $1million on the limestone mine and the artificial waterfall. With that amount of money, the entire prison property could have been transformed into an amazing tourist attraction. It is completely illogical to continue in this manner. New Zealand has real waterfalls all over the country for visitors to enjoy. So why continue this ongoing waste of resources in the mine when the prison is literally rotting away across the road? Let's at least match the funds to LINZ so the prison is looked after equally. An email was sent to Chris Penk asking for intervention.
Kia Ora Chris
I have finally received responses from LINZ and Heritage New Zealand, but not from you Chris. I am unsure why you chose not to respond to my email and request for intervention regarding the disappointing response from LINZ to my proposal to preserve New Zealand’s oldest prison. https://napierlighthouse.co.nz/proposal/
As I mentioned before, the Napier City Council has invested $1 million over the past five years to maintain an artificial waterfall in the old prison mine. Over the last 25 years, they have spent $4 million on this project, with projections to spend another $4 million in the next 25 years. This ongoing expenditure on a dysfunctional feature, the artificial waterfall, should be reconsidered in the Napier Centennial Gardens. The funds used by the Council to maintain the artificial waterfall would be better allocated towards the upkeep of the prison itself, rather than the prison mine.
A reallocation of resources would be a more logical and sensible approach for the future. Why should the Council spend another $4 million in the next 25 years on that mine if the prison across the road continues to be neglected by LINZ? I understand that the prison is Government property and the mine is Council property, so the difference in financial resources between what LINZ has spent on the prison and what the Council allocates towards the old prison mine does not make sense.
Currently, the Council spends $200,000 annually in the Napier Centennial Gardens. I wonder how much money LINZ has allocated towards the maintenance of the Napier prison in the last five years compared to what the Council spends in that old limestone mine. If LINZ had spent $ 1million on the prison in the last five years, the prison could have been completely restored into a tourist attraction, including a small replica lighthouse. The 'Official Government Information Request' about the dysfunction in the old limestone mine can be viewed here: https://napierlighthouse.co.nz/limestonemine
Our new government prides itself on wanting to save money and stop wastage of resources yet here we are, still wasting millions of dollars in an old limestone mine while the historic Old Napier Prison receives no resources from the government for maintenance. It simply does not make sense, Chris! Please have a look at this neglect by LINZ and please, please Chris, allocate more resources towards LINZ so that this historic prison is looked after in the future, not just the fake waterfall across the road. It does not make sense!
Chris Penk's email reply below confirms that the government is not taking any action regarding the dire prison situation. This supports LINZ in allowing the prison to deteriorate further without a future management plan. This is evident the government wants to dispose of there property. Good luck!
2024-08-21 - Hon Chris Penk to Mario Schmidt
Water at Napier's waterfall stops falling
Hawkes Bay Today By Laura Wiltshire 6 May, 2019
Maintenance work on a Napier pond has stopped the city's only waterfall from falling. The waterfall in Centennial Gardens has been out of action for several months, a Napier City Council spokesperson said. She said the Infrastructure team at NCC have been working on a project on the pond which feeds the waterfall, including design work.
They are also obtaining a building consent for repair work which needs to be done on the bridge in the gardens, which is being done at the same time as the pond maintenance. "The actual physical work is due to begin soon but is weather-dependent. The pool has been drained to conserve water due to leaks. The waterfall is man-made.
The gardens were initially built by prisoners in 1974, to commemorate the centenary of the city. It was built on a former quarry, with all the soil from the gardens having to be transported to the site, at the corner of Coote Rd, Marine Parade and Breakwater Rd, at the bottom of Bluff Hill.
The waterfall is fed from a lower pool with the water pumped into the main pool, before being pumped to the top of the cliff where it falls down the 40m rock face. In turn, spray from the waterfall has allowed plants to grow on the rock face. The garden is now looked after by Napier City Council gardeners.
Work to reopen Centennial Gardens in Napier tops $300,000. The extensive repairs that allowed Centennial Gardens and its signature waterfall to reopen to the public cost Napier City Council $323,000.
Hawkes Bay Today By Shannon Johnstone 22 Jan, 2020
The investigation into what work needed to be done started in 2018 and repair work started in June 2019. The gardens were closed off to the public in June 2019, after an investigation into what work needed to be done to the garden. The man-made waterfall was also out of action during that time. Repairs were done to the pond, pipework, bridge and signage and the garden, including the waterfall, reopened on Christmas Eve. Not including signage, the total cost of the repairs to date is $322,951, Debra Stewart NCC Team Leader for Parks, Reserves and Sportsgrounds said.
The upper and lower ponds were lined with concrete and a water proofing membrane. The membrane lining cost $125,852 and the concrete cost $55,864. The ponds pipework and water supply operations were improved at a cost of $25,224 for the new main water connection and $21,087 for directional drilling of the new pipe.
The supports and foundations of the pedestrian bridge were renewed. A further $40,395, was spent on the cost of management/design and $7593 was spent on design consultants. New signage is set to be installed next month. "The extent of the work which needed to be done was unknown at the start of the project and added to the overall cost, such as replacing the support structure for the bridge," Stewart said. This did not qualify for an exemption under the 2004 Building Act.