So it is quite short-sighted to just see public reserves as a convenient way of providing much-needed housing when the other option is, of course, to encourage medium- and high-density housing on the bulk of private land which exists in the city. Certainly, this site at the Huia Street Reserve, the 1.6 hectares, is very close to the city centre. Palmerston North Girls' High School is located to the south of the reserve. It's close to main traffic routes. So it may well be suitable for housing, but I was disappointed to see that one of the reasons the Palmerston North City Council is promoting this bill was because—as the Mayor, Grant Smith, said in his submission—"The proposal has the potential to provide the council with an alternative revenue source." Councils should not be about selling off public space reserve land in order to generate revenue. This space, once gone, is not generally retrieved. It has a multitude of uses, so I hope the Palmerston North City Council does consult widely and is careful in its decision making about whether to sell the reserve, or it adopts a proposal—as other councils have done—and works to provide a different form of housing typology on the land in a joint venture with a private developer, community housing trust, or others so that the land ownership remains with the council and remains in public ownership to preserve the options for the future. 