This will be my last article for the Ponsonby News as Chair of the Waitematā Local Board.
I will not be seeking the chair’s position and am happy to pass it on to someone with a fresh outlook. I want to thank all of you who voted or campaigned for me to return me to the Waitematā Board and I pledge that I will continue to work hard in the interests of the people, communities and businesses of the Waitematā Board area.
I also want to express my appreciation and thanks for the great work of former Councillor and 9-year Waitematā Board member Pippa Coom and to the Waitematā Local Board Members of the last term, particularly to Glenda Fryer, who was not re-elected.
I look forward to working positively and constructively with whoever the new board chair is and with all my colleagues on the newly elected board. The new board will be sworn in at a public meeting on Wednesday 2 November at 4pm in the reception lounge of the Town Hall.
I will be continuing to advocate for a more active and effective role for council to ensure all Aucklanders can access secure, affordable and appropriate housing and am pictured with fellow board member Gen Sage pledging to do so at the 10 October World Homelessness Day Rally in Freyberg Square.
New Mayor Wayne Brown, at a big meeting at St Matthews, pledged to establish a working group to develop practical ways to give real effect to the right to housing in Auckland and he should be held to that.
The right to housing is vital for everyone to fully participate in society by having a secure place to call home. By not providing enough affordable homes and putting Auckland’s homeless people long-term into often inappropriate central city motels and boarding houses they have failed both the homeless and the neighbouring residents and businesses.
People who are stressed, have mental health or addiction issues, or a tendency towards criminal or anti-social behaviour, have inevitably contributed to what people feel to be unsafe inner-city streets and neighbourhoods. We need the right mixture of better housing and social policies and policing and security policies.
The board has been working regularly with council and CCO staff and business associations to enhance the resurgence of the central city which is now well underway with activities and events helping the inner city and city fringe businesses recover and attract people back and making the neighbourhoods safer.
This financial year will, as a result of prudent Waitematā Local Board and governing body decisions, see us retain our range and quality of council services, progress the Ponsonby Park project and restore and upgrade of the Leys Institute.
A public consultation on two options for the future design of the Leys Institute is open until Thursday 1 December on our website and we look forward to hearing what you have to say. The governing body also agreed to a targeted rate to take more action by providing better bus services and more trees to combat climate change.
This targeted rate will reinforce our board’s own extensive and diverse work supporting and promoting low carbon lifestyles.
We have restored the very old heritage cottage in Myers Park for public use. The flying fox in Grey Lynn Park has been restored - safer but equally exciting. A photo from the opening event, which was enjoyed by hundreds of school children, is attached.
The former board advocated to council to continue to protect quality heritage and special character areas while also supporting well designed new development in the inner suburbs in its Unitary Plan review and I am confident the new board will also do so.
We are urging the provision of better-quality public toilets in central Karangahape Road and safer footpaths in Ponsonby Road and elsewhere. The Waitematā Board is organising the Parnell Festival of Roses on Sunday 13 November at Dove-Myer Robinson Park and sponsoring the Festival Italiano in Osborne Street, Newmarket the same day.
We are also sponsoring the Grey Lynn Park Festival on Saturday 19 November and the restored Franklin Road Christmas Lights from early December. (Richard Northey)
I can always be contacted on 021 534 546,
E: richard.northey@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
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