The Howick Local Board is again going into a new year without having resolved the contentious long-standing debate over management of a public facility.
Conflict over who should run the Howick War Memorial Hall in Picton Street has been raging for several years with various groups in the community having applied to become its manager.
An attempt by the previous local board to resolve the saga before the 2022 Auckland Council elections failed.
The Picton Street building, commonly known as the Howick Information Centre, was closed along with most council facilities in the first half of 2020 when New Zealand went into its first Covid-19 lockdown.
In late 2021 council staff recommended the local board appoint the Howick Village Association as the preferred applicant to manage it.
That recommendation has gone before the board multiple times but it’s failed to receive sufficient support to pass each time.
The council is currently managing the building as a venue for hire.
An issue relating to the facility arose during one of the board’s final business meetings in late 2023.
Its members were told their Howick Youth Facility and Programmes required additional funding of $130,000 to secure a long-term Youth Space at the Botany Town Centre.
Council staff recommended $82,000 from the budget for the Howick War Memorial Hall and $48,000 from Community Grants Howick be reallocated.
Board chairperson Damian Light said the $82,000 in the hall’s budget was “on pause” as there was currently no activity to spend it on and he supported the recommendation to reallocate the money.
Board member David Collings said he was very supportive of the youth facility, but he’d never seen the board allocate five years of funding in one financial year.
He was surprised its lead financial advisor wasn’t “having a meltdown”, he said.
The financial advisor responded if it’s a multi-year project and there’s a service agreement, “then that serves the purpose”.
Light asked Collings what his objection was to putting the funding up.
“I go away for a couple of weeks and all of a sudden that money is taken out of that … I don’t want that money to be taken away,” Collings said.
“I fought very hard to keep that money in the first place. You weren’t on the board at the time.
“This is being reallocated out of that budget so there won’t be any money to forward anything to do with the war memorial hall … this financial year.”
Light told Collings he hadn’t answered his question and added: “It’s a real shame you weren’t in the workshop last week when we discussed this in detail. The board had a very robust discussion …”
At that point Collings interrupted Light and talked over him.
After Collings finished speaking, other board members asked questions about the item.
As discussions became heated, member Katrina Bungard asked if the board could take a brief break.
Collings eventually moved an amendment to the original motion. It was not seconded and he withdrew it.
Bungard moved an amendment requesting council staff “investigate a quotation of a facilitation of the reopening of the Howick War Memorial Hall expression of interest process”.
The amendment was not seconded and she withdrew it.
The board voted to approve the reallocation of $130,000 toward the Howick Youth Facility and Programmes.
