On Thursday 17 October, the Howick Local Board held our business meeting for the month. Here’s a summary of some of the key discussions and outcomes. At the end there are links to the official minutes and recordings of our meetings.
📰 Acknowledgements for Howick College Netball, Pakūranga United Rugby Club
🗣 Deputations from Beautification Trust and NZ Thread Exchange, plus public forum with Professional Dog Walkers Association
📑 Feedback on draft dog policy and bylaw, time of use charging, Biosecurity Act
✅ Approval of community grants, adoption of Public Toilet Provision Assessment
After the initial formalities of the welcome, declarations of interest and confirmation of minutes, we confirmed our formal acknowledgements for the month.
We congratulated Howick College Netball on their recent success at the National Secondary Schools Netball Championship in Christchurch.
We congratulated Pakuranga United Rugby Club on their recent success at the National Men’s Under-85kg Championship in Wellington. As the curtain-raiser match to the All Black’s second Bledisloe Cup test match against Australia, the win was reported in local and national news coverage.
We then received a deputation from Daniel Barthow (CEO) and Sterling Ruwhiu (Community Programs Manager) of The Beautification Trust on their work over the past year. It was great to see their work on graffiti removal (40% increase in HLB area since last year), working with students, and operating their community recycling centre in Manurewa.
We received a deputation from Jenny Carter (Managing Director) from NZ Thread Exchange, explaining their aim to minimise clothes going into landfill by processing them for re-use. Great example of an innovative social enterprise!
In the public forum, we had Professional Dog Walkers Association, (PDWA) with Ben Spick (Chairperson) and Caleb Hendry. They discussed their views on the proposal to limit walking of multiple dogs which was due to be discussed later in the meeting. Their input was very helpful, with Members taking time to ask plenty of questions to clarify their understanding of the potential impact on the industry.
Given the strong interest in the item and the fact we still had Ben and Caleb with us, I moved up the item on the draft changes to the dog policy and bylaw. We had drafted some feedback prior to the meeting, but we altered it based on the public forum input. There was a strong discussion about the need to keep dogs under control (regardless if on or off leash) and more enforcement. After some debate, we altered our feedback to suggest greater consideration of the potential impact on commercial dog walkers and encourage further engagement with professional dog walking associations including potential regulations, but at this stage did not support a limit. This feedback will be considered before it goes for public consultation early in 2025.
Every month we allocate a slot for our Ward Councillors to provide an update. Unfortunately, due to scheduling clashes, they are usually unable to attend. To accommodate this, they agreed to provide a written report when there are board-specific updates to share. No report was received for this meeting.
However, we were fortunate to have Councillor Julie Fairey who is the ward councillor for Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa. She’s also the Chair of Joint Governance Working Party who recently managed the representation review, so it was good to have the opportunity to seek her insight over the process and next steps.
We then received and accepted my Chairpersons Report for October, detailing what we had been focused on since the last meeting.
We then considered our first grant allocations for this financial year, with applications exceeding $345k. We deferred one as we needed more information on the approvals required to deliver a mural bordering a public reserve. There were a couple were the Board debated the amount to provide and the total funds approved was $160,472.90.
Next we adopted the recently completed Public Toilet Provision Assessment. This document detailed the recent audit of all 30 public toilets, including the condition and opportunities for improvement. It was identified that 8 were fully accessible, 17 were partly accessible and the remaining 5 were not accessible at all. There are some gaps in the network including Mangemangeroa, Riverhills, Burswood, Greenmount, and Point View Reserve. We’ll use this information to plan future investment.
Auckland Transport is considering how they might implement time of use charging (sometimes referred to as congestion charging). While there is still a way to go (including Parliament passing legislation to enable it), we were asked for our input into how a scheme could work. We provided our feedback, with a strong focus on ensuring any scheme was easy to use and effective, with measures in place to confirm it worked as intended. We made it clear that practical alternatives would need to be place before implementing any changes.
We were asked for input into proposed changes to the Biosecurity Act. Because I work for a company that delivers work in this area, I declared potential conflict of interest and stepped aside. With Deputy Burns departing early due to illness, the Board elected a new Chair (David Collings) for the item. The Board supported increased fines for breaches, greater investment into scientific research and securing the border.
I returned to the Chair to finalise the meeting. We noted our workshop records and forward governance work calendar before closing the meeting at 3:24pm.
Minutes of the meeting are available here: https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2024/10/20241017_HW_MIN_11586_WEB.htm
along with related attachments like presentations here:
https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2024/10/20241017_HW_ATT_11586_WEB.htm
A recording of the meeting will be available shortly, along with previous meetings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNiuqKCzobSzQ05kCv2JI2iefmDp2_tEh
Our next normal Business Meeting is scheduled for Thursday 21 November at 12noon at the Pakuranga Library building in Aylesbury Street.
These are open to the public to attend and observe, although you need to request a slot if you would like to speak (so we can make sure we provide time).