Sorry - there was no newsletter for May as I was unfortunately sick with COVID-19 (I wrote about my experiences here) so this edition covers both May and June. Now that I've recovered, I've been busy catching up with people across East Auckland.
Yesterday I had an early start, helping out with community planting at Mangemangeroa. Then I popped into Eastern Busway community drop in session in Burswood. I'm still unconvinced about the Burswood diversion and it was good to get a bit more information on it.
Last night we attended the East Auckland Performing Arts Showcase, organised by the Howick Youth Council. It was a great evening, showcasing the incredible talent of our East Auckland rangatahi (young people).
I'll do my best to keep you up to date through my monthly newsletters. In between, stay up to date via my website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. As always, if there's something you want to hear about or know more, let me know.
Warm regards,
Damian Light
How many people have to die for Auckland Transport to act?
I’ve gone to write this piece a number of times, but struggled. Not because I don’t know what to write, but because it makes me so angry and frustrated. Too many people are being killed or seriously injured on our roads.
On 5 March 2022, Levi James was killed on his bike riding to see his grandmother. Not only is this a terrible tragedy, it was avoidable - Auckland Transport had recently completed a project in this area, but refused to consider basic safety improvements for bikes, even though their own plans and policies required it. Month later and they still hadn't taken any action to prevent a repeat.
Four years after the tragic loss of William Wiki Teoi at an intersection in East Tamaki, there is still no sign of action from Auckland Transport despite a coroner's ruling that the road layout was the primary cause of death.
Auckland Transport has a serious cultural issue that needs to be addressed. And culture is driven from the top - the executive leadership and the Board. The quality of information that is flowing up to the Board is appalling, with vague promises to look at policy repeated while lives are being lost.
I’ve written to the Chief Executive of Auckland Transport asking him why their organisation is failing to respond, although I have little faith that I will get a reasonable response.
Read the full piece here.