Weekly Wrap Up: 18 May 2026

Howick Local BoardWeekly Wrap Up
Written By Damian Light

Each week I’m providing a quick summary of the meetings and events I’ve attended as a member of the Howick Local Board (HLB). This is my report for last week, starting Monday 18 May.

On Wednesday I attended the Business East Tamaki Committee Meeting. It was good to be joined by the representative from our neighbouring Ōtara-Papatoetoe Local Board (the BID boundary includes their local board too).

On Thursday we had our HLB workshop (https://aucklandcouncil.resolve.red/portal/meeting/12278)

  • Local Board Agreement: this is our formal agreement with the Governing Body (Mayor and Councillors), setting out our priorities for the coming year. It also includes our performance targets that staff will be asked to achieve. Unfortunately, due to the insufficient funding to maintain what we have, the condition of assets like playgrounds is expected to continue to decline.

  • Transport Transition: Decision-making Frameworks: Parliament has passed legislation that will move most transport decision-making (except public transport) to council. With local boards about to get more authority over local roads, we had a good discussion about how this might work, including where decisions effect multiple local boards or regionally significant (arterial) roads. With tens of thousands of decisions per year to be made, making this work practically while still achieving democratic accountability will be challenging.

  • Finalise Local Board Work Programme (Opex): we continued our discussions to balance our budget. Our staff have worked incredibly hard to enable us to fund most of the activities we wanted, including some much-needed increases to critical programmes. Final decisions are made at our meeting on 25 June.

  • Eastern Busway Urban Regeneration programme Burswood / Pōhatu: this session was closed due to the “commercially sensitive material that requires free and frank discussion” so I’m not able to confirm what was discussed.

On Saturday I attended a public meeting hosted by local MP Simeon Brown with Auckland Transport regarding a proposed intersection upgrade for Pakūranga / Hutchinson / Aberfeldy. There was a good turnout from locals who wanted to understand more about the project, including what alternatives had been explored. Auckland Transport was very clear that it’s only a proposal at this stage and they welcome feedback. Public consultation closes on Friday 29 May – find out more: https://haveyoursay.at.govt.nz/pakuranga-hutchinsons...

This week:

Damian Light
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Lloyd Elsmore Dog Park Upgrade!