Arts & Community and Events Portfolio, & Herne Bay Issues (originally published April 2021)

Arts & Community and Events Portfolio

The Auckland Arts Festival has now ended, as has the fringe festival that continued into April as rescheduled shows were at last able to be staged. My own show was effected in this way so I was unable to go to as many shows as I would have liked because I was busy rehearsing. An Extraordinary Meeting did take out the Best Community Engagement prize – a new Oscar category if ever there was one, surely.

I have also thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Art Gallery’s Maori Art Exhibition. It is enormous and will require more visits. The same must be said of the new Auckland Stories gallery at the Museum which is absolutely terrific. My father in law found the experience incredibly powerful. It was his life he was seeing in the cabinets and it was very strange to look back on events as an observer than from the inside.

We have recently received feedback from the communities team on what matters most for communities across Auckland. Events, particularly community-led events were appreciated. Council staff have developed terrific models to support communities to create their own events and I hope that they will continue to do so. Funding processes, traffic plans and health and safety plans are all complex and some support is appreciated and necessary if we are to see the diversity of initiatives that we would like. The community also regarded affordable housing as their most pressing issue. House prices depend on many things including interest levels, global investment trends, zoning, cost and availability of materials and labour. It is arguable though that council should consider more about what it can do to help. This might mean inclusionary zoning, or a commitment to facilitate processes for those delivering Papakainga housing, social housing, state housing and co-housing to ensure that there is sufficient affordable housing in the future.

Herne Bay Issues

There are a number of ongoing local issues:

1. Street trees. Because of covid19, there has been insufficient planting of street trees

in Herne Bay where trees have failed. They would like fast growing trees planted next

year. This has been relayed to staff. We were promised a plan of street tree planting

in December, then in mid-April and I have chased up. This has been a difficult year

but it would be shameful to miss the planting window, particularly as hundreds of

trees have been cut down over Waitemata in this period.

2. Helicopters. The residents association have asked us to advocate that private

helicopter pads be prohibited in residential areas. [We were assured by staff that it

would be very unlikely for any new resource consent to be granted. It is unclear

whether variations to existing resource consents that might increase flights are as

unlikely. If this does seem to be a loophole then taking this advocacy position will be

discussed further.] The application for a variation of consent by an existing

rightsholder has been put on hold.

3. Stormwater concerns. Ensuring more investment in water quality was one of our top

three advocacy points in the Long Term Plan. While a targeted rate for water seems

to meet with approval we are yet to hear about what rate level rise will be approved.

Central government may be moving into the “water space” with the Three Waters

Review. We do not want to wait to clear up our harbours. What is of concern is that

Watercare have contacted elected members to note that some works may slow. It is

unsure whether this is in breach of court proceedings with the HBRA. I would support

the community in this matter. They have been fighting for this for a very long time and

the work is well overdue.

4. Plan Change 26. The desire to densify Auckland centre may mean that some older

properties may be compromised as residents will not be able to do maintenance on

them. They have asked us to advocate so that where an old property is by the

boundary, the neighbour must continue to allow them access, to paint the side wall

for example. I am keeping an eye on resource consents to ensure people are aware.

5. Parking and the Northern Pathway. There were some concerns about whether there

would be sufficient parking for the pedestrian/cycle crossing across the bridge,

however this project has been halted due to engineering issues.