On Thursday 15 May, the Howick Local Board held our fourth regular 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 regarding Marina Fitness, and All Hands Aotearoa
📑 Feedback on business improvement district (BID) targeted rates
✅ Approval of Marina Fitness lease, local dog access rules; Bradbury Road transport project; Sport and Active Recreation Facilities Plan; leases for Bucklands and Eastern Beaches Tennis Club, EastFM, Scouts, Bucklands Beach Bowling Club, Bucklands Beach Association Football, and East Skate Club
📊 Reviewed Quarter Three Performance Report
After the initial formalities of the welcome, we noted the declarations of interest and confirmed the previous minutes.
We had a huge turnout from the public for the Marina Fitness item, more than our meeting room could fit so staff provided a viewing area in the Pakūranga Library as well as options to observe online. I moved up the deputations, public forum, and the item itself so we could focus on that before moving onto other business.
We received a deputation from Dr Colleen Rigby and Glenn Ross who represented a group of Marina Fitness members. They made a well presented case for maintaining the service at Marina Fitness, connecting their presentation to our strategic local board plan.
We then had four public forum items on Marina Fitness - Jocelyn Cameron, Adi Gibbs, and Oranus Prapasiri, and Hoffman Lau. Each spoke about the importance of the service to them, providing context and different reasons to keep the service running.
We then considered the Marina Fitness lease expiry item, starting with a briefing from staff on the key information within the report. Marina Fitness is unique as the only council-run fitness facility that isn’t in a council-owned building. When we considered the lease last year, Auckland Council was undertaking a regional review of the pool and leisure network. Given this might have major impacts (such as outsourcing) and staff were recommending we close it, we voted to extend the lease for one year. Ultimately there were no regional changes and with the lease due to end on 16 August, staff presented three options for us to consider: renew the lease, look at outsourcing, or not renew it.
People love the service, with 97% customer satisfaction and a high number of regular users. There are more than 750 people active members of Marina Fitness, and visits have been growing steadily (up 14% compared to last year). As of February 2025, Marina Fitness had a year-to-date net profit of $94,963.20, although this was $70,471.19 behind budget. The expected rent was within budget even when adjusted for CPI.
After a good discussion, we voted to continue the lease for a further three years (Option one) while noting that a further 3-year Right of Renewal clause remains available for consideration in 2028. Based on public feedback, we also empowered staff to enter a six-year lease if that was beneficial.
We took a short break to allow most of the public to depart and also stretch our legs 90 minutes into the meeting.
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. It included the commemoration of Anzac Day and the sign unveiling at Windross Walkway by the Cockle Bay Residents and Ratepayers Association.
Next we turned our attention to deliberation on proposed changes to local dog access rules. We had proposed to change the rules for Lloyd Elsmore Park to be “dogs allowed under control on a leash within 10m of the Howick Historical Village”. Because this is a regulatory function, we needed to follow a specific procedure and we had staff from the Policy team to assist us. Firstly, we received and accepted all feedback from the local community, including one late item. Then we discussed the implications of the feedback, along with staff advice on the ways to respond while remaining consistent with the regional rules and legislation. We noted that 58% of the local feedback was in support, with 34% opposed, while the regional feedback only had 46% in support. We noted that the 10m rule was similar to the existing rule that required dogs under control on a leash near sports fields and playgrounds within Lloyd Elsmore Park. We voted to adopt the proposed changes as publicly notified, which will take effect on 1 August.
Next we received our second deputation from Dr. M. Waseem Soomro of All Hands Aotearoa. It was helpful to understand the work that this group is doing to improve digital and numerical literacy for elderly and youth.
At this point, Member Bungard had to leave the meeting for another commitment.
Then Auckland Transport presented their report on one of our projects and two of theirs. They asked us to authorise them to move to detailed design and construction of the speed calming measures on Bradbury Road, which we did. They also asked for our support for two of their projects - at-grade zebra pedestrian crossing on Flat Bush School Road near Arranmore Drive and install improved pedestrian facilities and other safety features on Stancombe Street near Erica Street, which we did.
Next we endorsed the targeted rates for our local Business Improvement Districts (BID). These are collected by Auckland Council but every dollar goes to the BID to use. The values are requested by the business associations and confirmed by their membership at their AGM. We endorse the rates ($211,622.94 for Howick Village Association and $612,379.00 for Business East Tāmaki).
In 2015, the Howick Local Board adopted our Sport and Active Recreation Facilities Plan which helps provide strategic direction on investment, advocacy, partnerships and opportunities within the sport and recreation facility network. This was refreshed in 2018, and this was the latest update from 2024. It’s good to see that a number of the high priority projects were already underway, but we still have more work to do.
Next we worked through six community leases. In 2023 the Governing Body (Mayor and Councillors) adopted new Community Occupancy Guidelines which included moving away from what’s referred to as a ‘peppercorn rent’ of $1 if requested (effectively free) to $1,300 per year. We’ve taken the approach of staggering the rent increase over three years ($500, $900, $1,300) to help reduce the impact on community groups, forgoing the revenue in the short-term.
First up was a renewal for the Bucklands and Eastern Beaches Tennis Club at Rogers Park. We staggered their rent and agreed to the ten-year term (as per their right of renewal).
Next was the Howick Radio Charitable Trust who operate the not-for-profit EastFM. Staff recommended a 5-year lease but their previous term had expired in 2023 so we extended it to 8 years so they would get the full 5 years. We staggered their rent increases in line with our normal practice.
At this point, Deputy Burns had to leave the meeting for another commitment.
We reviewed the lease for Scouts Howick together with the Bucklands Beach Bowling Club in a single report (saving staff time and money). We granted Scouts a 10-year lease (with one right of renewal) while Bowling Club was granted a 5-year lease, both with staggered increasing rents.
At this point, Member Turinsky had to leave the meeting for another commitment. During this time we temporarily lost quorum – we must always have at least five members physically in the room (online doesn’t count). Once they returned, we continued.
We reviewed a proposal to lease a small piece of land to the Bucklands Beach Association Football Club for their storage shed at Wiliam Green Domain. Given that it was only 14sq meters and they were already paying for a lease at Rogers Park, the Board agreed to reduce the rent for this site to a ‘peppercorn rent’ of $1 if requested (effectively free).
Our last lease of the day was for East Skate Club who were seeking a space at Lloyd Elsmore Park for a storage container and space next to the skatepark for a new skatebowl. The container would be used to store their equipment (like skateboards, helmets) used to activate the skatepark. The Howick Local Board is delivering an upgraded skatepark but couldn’t afford to deliver the skatebowl – by granting East Skate Club a lease over the space, this would allow them to fundraise for it, including accessing funders we couldn’t. There was some discussion from members about the proposed rent (staff recommended $1,300) and Members Kendall and Collings moved an amendment to reduce the rent to a ‘peppercorn rent’ of $1 if requested (effectively free). This failed to get the votes required but we did recognise that this was different from our normal leases and reduced the rent to $100, $200 and then $500 per year. Member Kendall requested his dissenting vote against the rent be recorded.
Our last major item for the day was to receive the Quarter Three Performance Report. Covering the January to March 2025, the report showed that 95% or 117 of our projects were on track. Operating revenue was below budget (mostly due to unrealistic pool and leisure centre budgets set by staff), while expenditure was slightly above budget.
Due to good financial and commercial decisions, we had some additional revenue to allocate. Staff recommended we allocate the $145k to the Howick Village BID Expansion ($10k), Howick Youth Council ($15k), and East Auckland Youth Space ($120k) which we did. This frees up funding in the next financial year, which we can then allocate to other projects.
We noted our workshop records and forward governance work calendar before closing the meeting at 4:39pm.
Minutes of the meeting are available here:
https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2025/05/20250515_HW_MIN_11592_WEB.htm
along with related attachments like presentations here:
https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2025/05/20250515_HW_ATT_11592_WEB.htm
https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2025/05/20250515_HW_ATT_11592_EXCLUDED_WEB.htm
https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2025/05/20250515_HW_MAT_11592_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 19 June at 12noon at the Pakūranga 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).