What services should the Flat Bush library, pool, and lesiure centre provide
Last week, the Howick Local Board (HLB) had an open workshop on the Flat Bush community facilities.
For many years the HLB has been fighting to secure the funding required from Auckland Council and in 2024 we successfully managed to secure $83M. With funding finally available, we asked staff to undertake a quick review of all the previous work and ensure it was still relevant, before we committed to this massive investment. This allowed work to continue during the election period and meant our new representatives for Flat Bush would be on board. In the meantime we funded and opened the temporary Flat Bush Library, which has helped provide some insight into the needs of the local community.
Unfortunately the review has taken longer than expected (we were told 6 months from July 2025) and the funding has been adjusted to match the new timelines (pushing the bulk of funding into the 2028-30 and 2032-34). I was disappointed by this delay - we seem to be loosing the momentum we built last term at a critical point.
The purpose of this workshop was to seek feedback on the proposed mix of services, priorities and areas requiring further investigation. Staff reviewed all the previous work done, together with updated demographics and emerging trends to provide some suggested services for the new facilities:
📚For the Library and Community Centre, staff were considering the normal library services as well as community space (including bookable spaces ranging from 15-100 people), potentially a community kitchen and leased spaces.
🏊For the Aquatic and Leisure Centre, staff were considering pools, water slides, health and wellbeing (spa, sauna, steam room and hydrotherapy), indoor recreation (courts), gym, and clinic/consultation rooms (e.g physiotherapy).
Both facilities would need toliets, showers, reception and other support services - they're currently planned for two seperate locations but we've asked staff to explore bringing them back together (which may deliver cost savings and deliver more value).
The feedback that I provided was that we must keep the focus on delivering for the residents of Flat Bush as quickly as possible. Too often these discussions get distracted by lofty dreams of regionally or even nationally significant facilities, adding layers of complexity that we simply cannot afford. Residents of Flat Bush have waited long enough, paying development contributions and rates for facilities they don't have.
I also didn't agree with focus on non-core services (like cafes, gyms) when these are already available at Ormiston - I'd prefer we supported local businesses, than competing with them using public money.
Our next workshop is expected to be in September on the topic of priorities, trade-offs and affordability. We'll be asked for our feedback on costs, priorities and scope refinement.
No decisions are made at these workshops - it's just discussion and informal feedback. Decisions can only be made at formal meetings, which is expected to occur in early 2027.
The full presentation is available here: https://aucklandcouncil.resolve.red/portal/meeting/12288/99443?type=2&docId=49804
Note the funding timing shown on slide 3 is out of date.