Local Government Group

Western Bays Community Board Meeting 16 September

We are doing a presentation to the Board and seeking funding for our Community “Branding ” project at the meeting on 16 September 2009.

July News

The Local Government Group meet with Cr Graeme Easte to discuss how best Grey Lynn 2030 can work with local government and develop a positive working relationship.

Pippa Coom attended the July Board meeting to report back on the success of the community meeting for  David Engwicht  – author of Mental Speed Bumps, and the number of traffic calming initiatives planned for the community.

June News

The Auckland City Council has been hearing  presentations this week on the draft Ten Year Plan 2009 – 2019. The plan sets out the council’s intentions for capital expenditure ($3.5 billion over 10 years), rates increases and projects planned to meet the council’s objectives.
Pippa Coom and Lynn Green went along to to speak in support of the Grey Lynn 2030 submission .  We had a lot to bring to the council’s attention in the 5 minutes allocated.  In particular, we urged the council to adopt a key objective to make Auckland a sustainable city and we highlighted intiatives which the council should support. For example the Grey Lynn Farmers Market,  community gardens, a local resource recovery facility and ways of dealing with organic waste.
We are also concerned about the proposal in the draft plan to cut the 10 year budget for new cycleway and walkway infrastructure from $27 million to $4 million.
We ended with photos from the e-waste day (where 12 tonnes of computer equipment was collected)  which clearly demonstrated to the councillors and mayor positive vision, practical action.

May Update

It has been a busy month for consultation with a number of opportunities to highlight Grey Lynn 2030′s vision for the community.
Here are the May submissions:
-  feedback on the council’s future planning framework “in my backyard”
- submission on the council’s draft 10 year plan 2009-2019
- submission on the Ministry for the Environment’s waste minimisation in NZ discussion paper
It is also great to hear of all the individual members of Grey Lynn 2030 who have taken the time to send in their own submissions.

Minutes from April Meeting

Consultancy Liaison Advocacy Planning Solutions

1: LTCCP. The council released its Long Term Council Community Plan (the “ten-year plan”) last week. Perhaps you have had a chance to browse it, but if you haven’t, here it is! We have the chance to submit to the plan electronically by clicking the “have your say” link at the top of the LTCCP and filling in the gaps. If you are wondering about whether to choose to have your submision heard at a public hearing, tick “yes”. You can always either opt out, or nominate someone else to talk for you as a group. I envision a representative from every Grey Lynn 2030 group presenting at the submissions hearing… how about it…

If you are wondering about the usefulness of participating in the LTCCP process when the council is obviously in a state of change, the council’s attitude is “business as usual”. Don’t let the changing structure of Auckland’s governance dissuade you from participating… in fact we need more representation than ever. Our opinions are taken into account by the council.

The chance to make submission to the LTCCP finishes on Friday 19th of May.

2: Future Planning Framework. Another interesting planning initiative from the council is the “FPF”. Its the long-long term “vision” for Auckland City, covering areas like “Spatial Framework” and “Strong and Healthy Communities”. And you can read it here. Once again there’s the chance to participate online and I’d really like to see all Grey Lynn 2030 groups in on this one! There’s a forum being held by the council on Tuesday 5th May at 6pm (this is a change from the previous date) at Leys Institute in Ponsonby for which you need to register on the website (click on “Events” at the top of the page).

The chance to make a submission to the FPF closes on the 8th of May.

3: Is it a town? NO! Is it a community? NO!! It’s Supercity!!! By now we have all heard of the Supercity scheme being rushed through parliament. John Banks reverted to his old, rabid ways on the radio last week and frankly, it scared me! However it was an interesting interview with Katherine Ryan. I wrote to Nikki Kaye (our local MP) as well as every other National MP in Auckland that I could think of. Some of them even sent replies. The addresses to send to are listed in this article from last weeks Aucklander. Please do write to the MPs outlining any concerns you might have about the supercity proposal. If you are unsure about what exactly is changing, Brian Rudman summed it up quite nicely here.

Minutes from March Meeting

Present: Gary, Suzy, Lynn, Kail, Mark, Pippa.

Pippa from Cycle Action Auckland (http://www.caa.org.nz/) introduced herself to the group and outlined her idea for a project promoting the use of the old tram route around Gt North Rd -> Jervois Rd as a cycle route. Gt North Rd, for example, is so wide that you could sail the Queen Mary up it. Pippa suggested using the “Living streets” idea of having parallel bus, cycle and car lanes to accommodate everyone. Geographically speaking, this route utilises the ridgeline encircling Ponsonby / Grey Lynn and accesses the inner streets of the area (Williamson, Wellpark, Summer, etc). It’s also pretty flat and eminently bikeable!

A bit of discussion ensued in which Mark suggested looking at ACC’s Transport Strategy (http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/auckland/transport/strategies/default.asp) as well as lobbying for changing public transport to be more user friendly (i.e. bikes on buses).

Lynn invited Pippa to give a presentation on this at a GL2030 meeting when she was ready.

Gary pointed out that Pippa’s idea linked up the catchment as a whole as it links open spaces with streams and opens up transport options to access the city etc (i.e. St Mary’s Bay -> under the bridge -> into the city. He suggested she look at the book Mental Speed Bumps (http://www.mentalspeedbumps.com/). He also offered his help with graphic presentation and other techy stuff.

Meeting closed at 8.45pm.