On Thursday 20 March, the Howick Local Board held our second business meeting of the year. Here’s a summary of some of the key discussions and outcomes. At the end there are links to the official minutes and recordings of our meetings.
🗣 Deputations from Tāmaki Estuary Environmental Forum, Howick RSA, and Birdcare Aotearoa
📑 Feedback on next years Auckland Transport Kōkiri agreement, adding trees to notable trees register, Draft Storm-affected Land Use Policy, Term of Parliament Amendment Bill
✅ Approval of new lease for Pakuranga and Howick Budgeting Service,
📊 Reviewed current Auckland Transport Kōkiri agreement
After the initial formalities of the welcome, we accepted an apology from Member David Collings, and approved Member John Spiller joining online. We noted the declarations of interest and confirmed the previous minutes.
We acknowledged:
🎉 Pakuranga Library on 30 years of service to the community, after the new building was opened on 11 March 1995.
🎉 Te Tuhi on 50 years of service to the community, hosting over 700 exhibitions featuring local, national and internationally significant artists as well as countless community meetings and events.
🎉 the 21 Local Board Chairs for their collaborative efforts in addressing collective concerns regarding the significant budget shortfall.
We received a deputation from Dr Julie Chambers, the Co-Chair Tamaki Estuary Environmental Forum (TEEF). Dr Chambers raised concerns about the level of sewage overflows that were occurring in our area and the lack of awareness that might be putting people at risk. As a result of her presentation, we asked staff provide information on the number of sewage overflow events in the Howick Local Board area and what actions are underway to monitor and reduce them.
Our second deputation was from Barry Dreyer, the President of Howick Rsa. Barry provided an update on the RSA’s progress and priorities. Since they exited their Howick property, they have been looking for a new welfare location and asked us to consider allowing them to use the Howick War Memorial Hall. We asked staff to bring the item to a workshop so we could review the utilisation data that he had provided in order to consider best usage of the Hall moving forward.
And our third deputation was from Dr Rashi Parker Fundraising Manager for BirdCare Aotearoa. Dr Parker provided an update on recent rescues from across the region and locally from our area. Due to funding pressures they can only help native and endemic birds, and even then they were still facing serious challenges in keeping their critical service operating.
With Auckland Transport staff in the room, I moved up the relevant items. Firstly we reviewed the Auckland Transport Kōkiri / Local Board Transport Agreement Quarterly Update. This new agreement was helping us work more collaboratively with Auckland Transport and I noted the significant improvement in our relationship over the past year.
We also reviewed the draft list of items to include in the next year’s Kōkiri Agreement. We asked to collaborate on the safety projects projects we had initiated (i.e. Bradbury Road, Kerrykeel Drive, Flat Bush School Road, Sunnyview Avenue, and Stanniland Road) and be consulted on major projects (Paid parking in Botany, pedestrian safety on Stancombe Road, and intersection of Cockle Bay/Churchill Road/Pah Road). We wanted to be informed of other improvements and optimisations, and asked for more public transport services, commuter focused cycleways, and some specific safety improvements (Fencible Drive, Union Road/Wellington Street, Smales Road/Sir William Ave).
Next we approved the proposed community lease for the Pakuranga and Howick Budgeting Service. This provides certainty for the group who have been on a monthly rolling lease since 2020. A smaller footprint for the group would allow the Local Board to occupy lesser used parts of the office, resulting in savings for both the group and council. We continued our approach of staggering the rent to increase over three years to help reduce the impact on community groups. Unfortunately, this wasn’t possible for the operational expenses (that cover the insurance and maintenance costs).
We provided our feedback on a draft proposal to add more trees to the notable trees schedule. Trees on this register are recognised as significant and are protected. We supported adding more trees (there are 15 trees or groups proposed for our area) which will go out for public consultation. Some of the trees on this list were first proposed 10-12 years ago but this had been the first update since then - we encouraged council to improve the process to make it faster. We also encouraged council to use the consultation process to help educate the public on the rules for tree protection.
Every month we allocate a slot for our Ward Councillors to provide an update. Unfortunately, due to scheduling clashes, they are usually unable to attend. To accommodate this, they agreed to provide a written report when there are board-specific updates to share. No report was received for this meeting.
I presented my Chairpersons Report for the month, detailing what we had been focused on since the last meeting. I noted the progress being made on our destination playground and our local transport projects, as well as the local speed limit reversals. We’d received a lot of emails concerned about the future of Marina Fitness in Half Moon Bay, which is due to be resolved in the near future. And our concerns about the cost pressures, which had been resolved since my report was published. I asked the Board to endorse the Local Board Chairs Letter which had led to the positive outcome. But we also need to address the underlying issues with a lack of proper financial information for local boards – so we formally asked staff to make it happen, warning that without this information it will be extremely difficult to approve the local board agreement and work programmes.
The next item, seeking feedback on the cost pressures had been withdrawn as the Mayor had agreed to resolve it without asking Local Boards to cut services.
We noted our urgent decision to provide feedback on Auckland Council’s Draft Storm-affected Land Use Policy. Our feedback included concerns that Local Boards had not been appropriately involved in the process until the end, which meant the policy failed to adequately consider the impact on local communities. Most of our feedback was along the same theme – take a better look at how this would impact Local Boards.
We provided our feedback into Auckland Council’s submission on the Term of Parliament (Enabling 4-year Term) Legislation Amendment Bill. In short the bill proposed allowing each parliament to elect a 3 or 4 year term, provided they adjusted the membership of the select committees. We noted our previous feedback supporting a move to 4 years, with local government offset by 2 years to avoid clashes. We did not support the variable 3 or 4 year cycle based on the risk it would create uncertainty. We supported greater accountability for central government regardless of the outcome of the bill, including entrenching the NZ Bill of Rights Act.
We were due to provide feedback on the draft Contributions Policy, but it was withdrawn due to issues with the report. We’ll consider it in our April meeting.
We noted our workshop records and forward governance work calendar before closing the meeting at 2:38pm.
Minutes of the meeting are available here:
https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2025/03/20250320_HW_MIN_11590_WEB.htm
along with related attachments like presentations here:
https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2025/03/20250320_HW_ATT_11590_WEB.htm
https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2025/03/20250320_HW_MAT_11590_WEB.htm
A recording of the meeting is available here, along with previous meetings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNiuqKCzobSzQ05kCv2JI2iefmDp2_tEh
Our next normal Business Meeting is scheduled for Thursday 17 April at 12noon at the Pakuranga Library building in Aylesbury Street.
These are open to the public to attend and observe, although you need to request a slot if you would like to speak (so we can make sure we provide time).