Some people are never happy

A resident of Atawhai, near Nelson in New Zealand, alerted the media when a Nelson City Council employee travelled to her property on a cycle to carry out a resource consent application. 

 

"I stood there with my mouth open like an ape," Nanette Thompson said [...]

 

Mrs Thompson said a previous building consent to erect a tennis pavilion on their property incurred an inspection fee of $857.25 excluding GST, so she was surprised to find staff weren't choosing the most efficient means of travel.

 

The council officer 'missed his afternoon tea to fit in his cycle ride', the report notes.  The distance between the council offices and Atawhai is 5.3km (here's a map), which makes a cycle journey eminently sensible, if you ask me (which you didn't).  Perhaps this is just an indication of the lack of anything substantive to complain about in Nelson.      

 

- Source: Nelson Mail, 1 July 2008