While it’s good to see our councillors accept they had previously made the wrong decision and try to save Fortyfoot Park it has been too late. I welcome their recent efforts but today's outcome is the unfortunate but inevitable result of poor decisions they made two years ago.
On Tuesday 26 July 2022, a motion before council to prevent the sale of the public reserve at 9R Fortyfoot Lane in Sunnyhills failed to get sufficient support, losing 8-13.
The park was put up for sale as a result of the Asset Recycling programme initiated under the 2020/2021 Emergency budget which both Howick-ward Councillors Paul Young and Sharon Stewart voted for. The target for asset sales was set at a record $224 million and the list of initial target properties in the Howick ward included 34 Moore Street, 16 Fencible Drive and 28R Simon Owen Place. On the potential target list were 14 properties in Howick, including 9R Fortyfoot Lane, 76R Aberfeldy Avenue and 111R Golflands Drive. After intense public pressure the Golflands reserve has been withdrawn from the list, but both Aberfeldy and Fortyfoot remain as targets for sale.
I was there in the council chambers in July 2020 as our councillors both voted in full support of the Emergency Budget. I was stunned to see both of our elected representatives vote to sell hundreds of millions in community assets, knowing full well that beloved local parks were in the firing line.
The community feedback was clearly against selling these parks and the Howick Local Board were strongly opposed to the sales. My own submission on the budget criticised the asset sales, noting that the timing was extremely poor and Eke Panuku Development Auckland (the Auckland Council CCO responsible for the Asset Recycling programme) had a bad record of community engagement.
Asset recycling is a dreadful euphemism used to disguise what this really is - a firesale of community assets to cover poor financial management. Decades of poor governance, haphazard prioritisation and no financial discipline have left Auckland with record debt, endless rates rises and reduced services. To make matters worse, local parks are being sold to cover the shortfall.
I’ve been a vocal critic of the programme to sell parks and reserves since it was proposed in 2020.
“While I'm not ideologically opposed to asset sales, selling our reserves and greenspaces is something else entirely. As our city continues to grow and housing is intensified, these spaces become more important. Once gone, we'll never get them back. It's short sighted and fails to address the issues of waste and misspending.”
- Damian Light, February 2021 after attending a community meeting in Aberfeldy Park where both Howick-ward councillors failed to show up.
Sometimes it makes sense to sell some unused land to fund something better and more useful for the community. 2R Ti Rakau Drive is a good example of a small parcel of land that served little community use.
However when council does sell community assets, all revenue generated must be reinvested into the communities whose assets were sold. Putting the revenue into the general revenue pool is dishonest and robbing communities a second time.
Today's outcome is a sobering reminder that decisions made by council have serious, long term impacts on communities. I feel for the locals who have been forced to fight for their community park and been let down. I'm also fearful for the other parks whose fate we don't yet know, such as Aberfeldy.
East Auckland deserves better - we need councillors who will listen and act in the best interests of their community at all times, not just during an election year.