Protestors vent at Brown as St Heliers demolition begins (PHOTOS)
Protestors vented their anger at Auckland Mayor Len Brown as two historic St Heliers houses were demolished this morning.
Developers have moved swiftly to demolish historic art deco houses in Auckland's St Heliers after yesterday winning a court battle to allow them to proceed. Work started at the crack of dawn in Turua St today,with two of the houses now gone and the third to be destroyed shortly.
Protestors vented their anger at Auckland Mayor Len Brown.
Dr Gabriel Reid described Len Brown as unscrupulous, saying "let Auckland no longer pretend we are living in a civilised society. If anything, [the mayor] has weakened the heritage protection with his new plans."
Thousands of hours have been invested by volunteers and protestors, Dr Reid told NBR, "and he hasn't given us a minute of his time."
A couple of dozen members of the Save Out St Heliers Group gathered to watch the demolition. NBR publisher Barry Colman, who funded the court battle to try to save the buildings, was also there.
Protestor Alex Dempsey told NBR "I think it's a very serious point that people spend thousands of dollars going overseas to enjoy countries where they preserve their heritage while they are paying for ours to be trashed. This is all we've got and it's a finite resource and in Auckland it's disappearing fast.
The St Heliers group say they will continue to focus on other potential development sites in the area and have been galvanised by the loss of the Turua St properties.
NBR staff
Fri, 28 Jan 2011
Fri, 28 Jan 2011
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Protestors vent at Brown as St Heliers demolition begins (PHOTOS)
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