- By Damian Light, Howick Local Board chairperson
Welcome back to the Times! We’re pleased to see this vital community service continuing as an important source of local news, history and events.
We’re responding to your feedback
The Howick Local Board has been busy advocating for the best outcome for local residents in the Auckland Council’s Long-Term Plan.
The draft 10-year plan for the city went out for public consultation in February and March this year with strong local support for better transport and water infrastructure.
Thank you to everyone who submitted online, on paper, in local libraries or at one of the in-person events.
We considered your feedback, along with the briefings we’ve received, as we formalised our own input into regional topics.
We took the opportunity to strongly advocate for the Flat Bush Community Centre and Library to be built sooner.
We also asked Auckland Council to do everything in its power to ensure appropriate infrastructure is in place before approving housing intensification.
We’re also using the public consultation input to help prioritise our own local work programmes, building on the successes of our previous activities while balancing the limited budget we have available.
We heard clearly that you want us to focus on delivering tangible outcomes – more details to come once these have been finalised in June.
We’re providing for our communities
Last year we saved Kauri Kids Early Childhood Education from closure and asked staff to find a new operator.
We recently voted to extend the deadline until the end of September to allow this process to be completed.
Faced with the pending closure of Marina Fitness, we recently voted to extend the lease to allow staff to complete investigations into alternative options.
We’ve also formally moved the Howick War Memorial Hall into a venue for hire, closing out a three-year process exploring options for community management of the building.
We appreciate it’s taken longer than we’d all hoped and we’re grateful for all the applicants who have been extremely patient while we worked this through.
This decision delivers the clarity the public have been asking for and allows the community to continue to activate the building through a well understood, fair and transparent process. To reduce the impact on existing users, we’ve kept it free to hire until January 1, 2025.
Find out more and stay in touch
Website: www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/howick
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HowickLB
Monthly eNewsletter: https://bit.ly/42kdAlK
