My HamiltON inquiry on Hood street

Hamilton inquiry
Was Hood street worth all that money?
They built it, then tore it up, then built it again but it doesn't end there.
Hamilton City Council has decided to rip out about 10 grassy gardens on the Hood St because of design, safety and appearance issues.
The gardens were in a sorry state when the Waikato Times visited this morning, sporting forlorn dying and trampled plants.
People were falling and tripping into the gardens, the gardens would get in the way of pedestrians, and delivery vehicles had trouble loading and unloading. The damage to the gardens made them look messy.
The gardens would fall within the project cost, which was under budget.
Only three months after the beleaguered project was signed off it appears that all of the suspended lights on Hood street have to be replaced.
The lights were "defective" and had all been replaced by the suppliers, at no cost to council. Workers had spent time this week replacing the lights.
Leaks had caused several of the lights to "pop" early. There were no safety issues with the lights and while not all of them were faulty, they had all been replaced.
The intricate lighting network, some of which is suspended over the street and creates patterns on the street at night, made up $965,000 of the total project cost, according to council figures.
The lighting bungle is the latest in a series of snags the project has had and the council will review the project next month.
City residents think $5.3 million was frittered away.

I got most of my info from Waikato times website, I remembered articles a while ago about Hood street, but we didn't keep them. The Waikato times collect all their articles and put them on the web so that any one can read them!!!