Tag: jon turner

October Board Member Report

General / assigned roles update

  • Weed Management Political Advisory Group:
    • The first meeting of the group this year was held online on the 26th of October.  Topics covered included:
      • Reducing herbicide use through biological control such as beetles increased trade inspections to prevent the sale of weedy species and eradicate low-incidence species in Auckland.
    • An update on the timeframe for standardising weed control methodology. This was planned for next year but has now been delayed into the next term. An analysis framework was provided looking at the different options for treating weeds in the road corridor, with Organic Herbicide coming out on top, but with questions around the weighting of different criteria still needing to be answered.
  • Transport portfolio:
    • “Stage 1” of the Greenways project from Frost Road through to Monte Cecilia was completed, focusing on the stretch of Britton Avenue from Frost Road through to Dornwell Road. We are now waiting for the next stage to be confirmed, and have asked for signage to be included as part of the works.
    • Auckland Transport and the Governing Body approved a $3 Million package over three years called Regional Streets for People. Our board is working on an expression of interest based on increasing active transport use to get to schools, focused on our excellent greenway network.
    • It was good to see Dominion Road resurfaced for a stretch. Sadly the footpaths remain in poor condition. This financial year there has been extra money set aside in the Auckland Transport budget to improve footpaths, and I look forward to seeing the list for our area.
    • The long awaited Arundel Street roundabout works began this month, addressing community concerns around speeding traffic at this local intersection.
  • Manukau Harbour Forum:
    • The forum met on the 8th October for a workshop and meeting. Topics covered included:
      • An update on the Freshwater management model – a very exciting tool which models the water quality of Auckland’s freshwater rivers. This will allow for a more accurate representation of water quality, including the possible ability for something similar to the safeswim program to be implemented for some swimming spots.
      • An update on the Onehunga Wharf plans from Panuku. There are some very exciting ideas being talked about, but it is all at a very early stage.
      • An update on the South West Wastewater project being undertaken by Watercare currently.
      • At the business meeting, Jim Jackson gave us a great update on the progress of the community-led Clarks Beach Public Wharf proposal. Jim has done a lot of great work around the harbour and this latest piece of work will improve recreational and commercial access to the harbour.

Meetings / events attended

n.b – for this month, all meetings were held online either on Skype or MS Teams.

  • 1st October – Local Board members’ briefing on proposals for Waste in the 22/23 Financial Year.
  • 4th October – Local Board members’ briefing on the “Managing our Wetlands” legislation change proposal by central Government.
  • 5th October – Regional Streets for People Expression of Interest meeting hosted by Auckland Transport.
  • 6th October – Meeting with Community Facilities and Chair Fairey.
  • 6th October – Meeting with Local Board advisors and Chair Fairey.
  • 7th October –  Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 8th October – Manukau Harbour Forum workshop and business meeting.
  • 8th October – Regional Streets for People discussion with community members and staff.
  • 11th October – Local Board Chairs Forum
  • 12th October – Briefing on the Covid Situation in Tāmaki Makaurau.
  • 13th October – Finance and Performance Committee workshop
  • 13th October – Meeting with Local Board advisors and Chair Fairey.
  • 14th October – Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 19th October – Briefing on the Covid Situation in Tāmaki Makaurau.
  • 19th October – Meeting regarding Regional Streets for People.
  • 19th October – Meeting with Puketāpapa Business Voice.
  • 20th October– Catch up with advisors and Chair Fairey.
  • 20th October – Finance and Performance Committee workshop
  • 21st October – Puketāpapa Local Board Business Meeting.
  • 21st October – Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 26th October – Briefing on the Covid Situation in Tāmaki Makaurau.
  • 26th October – Weed Management Political Advisory Group meeting.
  • 27th October – Meeting with Chair Fairey and the Local Area Manager
  • 27th October – Finance and Performance Committee workshop
  • 28th October – Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 28th October – Integrated Area Plan meeting via SKYPE.

Disclosures

  • I am working with Friends of Wairaki stream in an admin role and will excuse myself from any decision making relating to this group.
  • I am a volunteer run director at Owairaka parkrun.

Manukau Harbour Forum Chair’s Report July – August 2021

The “Synthesis of State of the Environment Monitoring in the Manukau Harbour” report was published at the end of June. The report provides a reliable data set to refer to in our advocacy around improving the Harbour, based on data going back to 1965.

The report confirms that the Manukau has been degraded due to decades of human activity surrounding the Harbour. Massive deforestation over the course of human occupation, high levels of nitrates in the horticultural flatlands, high levels of sediment runoff in the Northern Harbour and along the Awhitu peninsula, high levels of zinc and copper runoff from roads in the catchment, high level of pest plants and animals, and degraded streams feeding into the Harbour all contribute to a degraded ecosystem.

The report shows that there have been improvements in water quality and air quality; however, these are primarily minor improvements, starting from a low level. Coastal water quality in the Harbour is the worst in Auckland, and I believe this should be reflected in the investment allocated by Governing Body. Thankfully, the Harbour has some great swimming spots which can be seen on https://www.safeswim.org.nz/ but there are also a high number of unswimmable beaches.

The report will be published yearly from here on, and we have asked that the next iteration include an analysis of fish stocks based on the data gathered by MPI.

The report outlines much of the work being done by the Council to improve the Harbour, and it has been heartening to see the support from Councillors to improve the Harbour. To ramp up addressing the issues around the Harbour will require investment from Central Government, with potential regulatory changes needed down the line. I would like to see a stocktake of the volunteer work being done around the Harbour, although it would probably double the size of the report!

There is a need for a restoration plan for the Harbour’s ecosystem, one developed in partnership with mana whenua and looking at all of the avenues we can take to rehabilitate the ecosystem, including looking at how we manage contaminants entering the catchment on land.

At our last workshop, we had an update from Sophia Olo-Whaanoa and Kowhai Olsen from Makaurau Marae on the excellent work they have done around the Oruarangi Creek and the Harbour itself. We also finalised the budget for the next financial year, with confirmation of funding for our co-ordinator, a comms plan, mana whenua hui and the youth sustainability wananga that has been very successful.

Manukau Harbour Forum Chair’s report: August – September 2021

Manukau Harbour Forum Chair’s report –August 9th – September 24th

  • 11th August – Meeting with new Manukau Harbour Forum Coordinator and MHF Deputy Chair Alan Cole.
  • 20th August – Three Waters Reforms discussion via SKYPE.
  • 30th August – Attended Watercare Board meeting via SKYPE.
  • 30th August – Manukau Harbour Forum executive team meeting via SKYPE.
  • 3rd September – Local Government New Zealand Three Waters reform discussion.
  • 15th September – Environment and Climate Change Committee meeting on the Auckland Water Strategy
  • 22nd September – Environment and Climate Change Committee meeting on the Auckland Water Strategy
  • 24th September – Presenting to the Southern Chairs Forum on behalf of the Forum.

The majority of the period covered by this report was spent in Level 4 Lockdown, reducing the ability to meet in person. I am lucky enough to live close to the Waikōwhai Walkway and have enjoyed numerous bush walks and bird watching over the lockdown period.

The Forum is very lucky to have secured the services of Dr Julie Chambers as the Forum’s new coordinator. Dr Chambers has co-chaired the Tamaki Estuary Environmental Forum and has bought some excellent energy to the role. Julie has five ‘focus areas’ – Strategy and planning to achieve the vision of the Forum, collaboration with friends of the Forum, building the knowledge base of the Forum, building relationships with mana whenua and administration. I look forward to working with her over the next year.

I was pleased to be able to connect members of the community with the correct council staff to get navigation lights in the Harbour fixed. These lights have an interesting list of owners, with a mix of private and public ownership, meaning a fix is not always easy.

I wrote an article discussing the State of the Harbour report for Clarks Beach’s “Greenie” magazine’s August issue. This has been well received, and I have opened up dialogue with several interested community members who share our passion for protecting and restoring the Manukau Harbour.

I was, unfortunately, unable to attend August’s meeting of the Manukau Harbour Forum due to a family emergency. There was a presentation on the excellent youth wananga programme the Forum part-funds and the “closing the gap” programme aimed at reducing sediment into the environment from construction across Tāmaki Makaurau.

I presented an update to the Southern Local Board Chairs Forum on the Forum’s Work Programme and the highlights of the first half of the term.

The Three Waters reform could have big effects on how water is managed around the Harbour, particularly the inclusion of stormwater into the reform. Healthy Waters have been doing some excellent work, and we await more information on the proposed reform. The discussions I attended on it reveal the work that needs to be done to get this to a place I would feel comfortable supporting.

Jon Turner (Puketāpapa Local Board)

Chair of the Manukau Harbour Forum

Manukau Harbour Forum Chair’s Report April – June 2021

Over the period covered by this report, I have been busy in my new role as Deputy Chair for the Puketāpapa Local Board and work going on with the Harbour Forum. Several events I have attended have allowed me to represent both roles, and the lens I have around the Manukau Harbour has informed our board’s submissions to the Governing Body.

It has been a busy time for the Council with consultation on the 10 Year Long Term Plan, Regional Land Transport Plan and end of Financial Year all taking place within a short period of time.

Our last workshop was on April 9th and was a very interesting meeting, covering:

  • Initial discussions around the Forum’s work programme for the next financial year.
    • Discussions around having Kainga Ora present at a workshop, looking at the similarities across the boards Kainga Ora is working in and encouraging them to see the Manukau Harbour as a wider catchment that connects these areas.
    • Update from Conservation Volunteers on their Papakura Stream work. Lots of trees being planted, funding for fences made of recycled plastic on a number of farms.
    • Te Whakaoratanga I te Puhinui: The Puhinui Regeneration Strategy session was a fascinating look at the work Panuku is doing in partnership with Waiohua iwi. This project is very exciting and I look forward to its progression.
    • An update from Natural Environment Strategy on the work following the recommendations from the Environment and Climate Change Committee meeting of the November 12th 2020.

On the 23rd April Whau Local Board Chair Thomas and I attended and spoke at the “Young Leaders Sustainability Wananga” at Ambury Park, part-funded by the Manukau Harbour Forum. The young leaders were selected from schools within the 9 Local Board areas of the Forum, and from the small snippet I saw, they had learnt a considerable amount. A highlight was seeing the young leaders who had taken part in previous years return and share the benefits of being in the programme and all of the mahi they take part in to protect and enhance the harbour.

On April 30th, Mangere-Otahuhu Chair Sosene, Coordinator Fraser Stobie and I attended a site visit at the Old Mangere Bridge replacement. We saw the plans for the ‘heritage garden’ at the Northern end and then went out onto the bridge to see the tremendous amount of work going into it. This will be an impressive asset when completed and will work to bring people to the harbour.

As part of the Long Term Plan (LTP) process, I raised concerns with councillors around the lack of funding earmarked for the Manukau Harbour out of the Water Quality Targeted Rate. The “Southern catchments programme” is focused on the Tamaki Estuary and Manukau Harbour, intended to leverage other major infrastructure projects which will need to invest in improving water quality. There is also investment into the safer networks programme which looks at investigating the ‘high problem’ areas and finding the illegal connections which often exist in areas of high pollution. There was widespread agreement that there is a need to tell the story of what is being done in the Manukau across the Council’s spending. I note that in the final LTP consultation report, four local boards specifically expressed support for using the Water Quality Targeted Rate to improve water quality in the Manukau Harbour.

On May 14th the Forum and a range of community and council representatives boarded the Ratahi for a field trip around the Manukau Harbour. Jim Jackson was generous enough to allow the trip to leave from his place in Clark’s Beach, and after a round of introductions and a karakia from George Flavell of Ngati Te Ata, we headed out. We first went down the Waiuku River to see the Glenbrook Steel Mill and heard from them about the operations and the upcoming resource consent. Following this, we went up the Waiuku Channel, past Clarks Beach township, and alongside the Awhitu Peninsula, looking at the cliff erosion that creates significant sediment loadings into the harbour. We then went across to Cornwallis Peninsula and headed back directly across the harbour.

On the trip we heard about the CREST project, a community conservation project that aims to protect coastal wildlife along the coastline from Clarks Beach to Karaka; Te Korowai o Papatūānuku, a 1 Billion Trees project on Āwhitu; Healthy Waters Water Quality work programmes in the Franklin area; issues with sedimentation at public wharves and boat ramps; fish, seaweed and shellfish stock in the harbour; long term economic redevelopment of the harbour including the potential for a frequent ferry from Onehunga to Clarks Beach; establishment of cycle and walking tracks along the harbour’s foreshore; development of a marine facility at Kahawai Point and a Manuka planting plan for Awhitu Peninsula.

During the trip, Jim Jackson and Ian Ruthe raised concerns about non-functioning navigational markers on the harbour and I subsequently raised this with Auckland Transport. Interestingly the lights in the Wairopa channel are ‘owned’ by Panuku since purchasing the port but are maintained by AT. Liquigas own the lights in the Papakura channel and it was raised that these also have issues that are being looked into. 

This has been a long-sought for trip and was vital for the Forum members and high-level Council staff to get a feeling for being on the harbour and seeing a side of it many of us don’t usually get to see. We all have our connections to different parts of the harbour and being able to experience it through a new lens was a great opportunity.

The southern Local Boards were invited to a hui with Ngāti Tamaoho, looking at their successes and goals for the future. We were lucky enough to have Ted Ngataki share his vision for restoring the Pahurehure Inlet and Manukau Harbour beyond it. We had some great discussion around the role mana whenua have in caring for the harbour and the need for Council to involve them in decision making. Our Auckland published a story reporting on the day which included a quote from me as chair of the Forum.

I met with Panuku’s Onehunga Wharf team to have a high-level conversation around plans for the wharf in the near future. It was interesting to learn about all the different interests involved in the wharf, and how projects that may happen in the future affect the plans for the wharf – with the East-West Link playing a large role in discussions. Although there were no formal plans to show, the priority for Panuku is opening up public access to the wharf in the near future, as well as working on developing the coastal walkway with mana whenua. We all agreed that having access to the water from the wharf would be a great asset for the harbour in future.

The ‘State of the harbour’ report for the Manukau Harbour is due to be released on July 1st and will provide a clear picture of the environmental state of the harbour, allowing us to advocate for more investment in fixing the issues identified. I haven’t had the opportunity to read it prior to filing this report, but I look forward to its release and the broader discussions we have about the harbour resulting from its release.

I have also been involved in my usual volunteer activities with Friends of Wairaki Stream, working to improve the health of this stream which discharges into the Manukau at Lynfield Cove.

Manukau Harbour Forum Chair’s report – February and March 2021

This period has largely focused on submissions, particularly as a number of events were cancelled due to Auckland going into lockdown again. I also managed to fracture an elbow in early March so had to miss out on SeaWeek activities this year, but I have appreciated seeing pictures of the mahi undertaken, particularly around removing rubbish from the foreshore.

Our Last workshop was February 12th 2021. Topics on the agenda included:

  • The coordinators work on the stocktake of Local Board initiatives which will be available to read on the next business meeting agenda. A high level analysis shows over $2 million spent from Local Board work programme initiatives that benefit the harbour. Forward work needs to look at creating programmes that work across Local Board boundaries, and focusing on marine ecosystems such as benthic communities.
  • An update from Watercare on projects affecting the Manukau – particularly around the treatment plant. There was a lot of new information for Forum members, one highlight for me was hearing about a baseline study for the Southwest treatment plant taking into account matauranga Māori. We also received an update on the Hydrodynamic model and the holdup with the model overpredicting algal blooms. More to come on this in future.
  • An update on the Freshwater management tool run by Wai Ora. This is a huge piece of work that will be invaluable in discussions of intensification in Tāmaki Makaurau, and was really impressive to hear about. There is the ability to ‘model’ what the effects of projects will be on the ‘current state’ such as adding impermeable surfaces as part of a housing development.
  • An update from Healthy Waterson how the  Water Quality Targeted Rate extension would benefit the harbour. Most of the focus was on the Southern Catchments Alignment, which will be used to clean up waterways entering the Harbour. There was a desire to get more information on this from the forum.  There was also discussion of how the Safe Networks team is working to track where pollution comes from in residential areas.

Sadly this was the day that we learnt of the pollution spill into the harbour from an industrial site in Penrose. Investigations are continuing into how this happened, what procedures were not followed and what needs to be in place to stop this happening.

The Forum have also written submissions on the Auckland Council Long Term Plan and the Climate Change Commission Report. These will be available on the next business meeting agenda. Both express a clear desire for both documents to do far more in the space of water quality and wider environmental protection. Thanks to Fraser Stobie for his hard work in collating these, well worth a read as they set out the mahi for the Forum quite well.

The Youth Sustainability Wananga invitation has been sent out and students are being contacted soon with this beginning in April. This wasn’t able to run last year under Covid so we are very excited about this mahi.

Local Boards are all working on their work programs, and the stocktake from last year will be useful in this development. The forum is awaiting confirmation of funding for next year before finalizing any work program but beginning discussions around what we would like to include.

Manukau Harbour Forum Chair’s Report November 2020- January 2021

Following our election in early November, the first important task Deputy Chair Cole and I faced was to present in support of the report given to the Environment and Climate Change Committee regarding the future of the Manukau Harbour Forum. It was heartening to hear of the support from Councillors for increased investment in the Manukau Harbour, as well as a commitment to improving the governing arrangements around the Harbour and working with mana whenua. A copy of my speaking notes is available at: https://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2020/11/MHFJC_20201127_AGN_10359_AT.htm#PDF3_Attachment_77911_4

On November the 17th I attended the Western Isthmus Water Quality group meeting hosted by Watercare. Although this largely focuses on the Works being undertaken around the Waitemata, there was discussion around the Meola and Whau catchments, as well as some discussion about stormwater separation along the Waikōwhai/Blockhouse Bay coastline.
On November the 23rd the Forum held a workshop and meeting which discussed Water Quality, the I&ES stocktake, an analysis of the report, meeting our new coordinator Fraser Stobie and finalising the work programme for the financial year. Later that evening I joined in with a volunteer group mulching some new plantings above Wattle Bay which will protect the critically threatened dwarf mistletoe which can be found there.

On December 4th I attended the Mangere Community Liaison group hosted by Watercare at their Māngere treatment plant. These meetings cover a wide range of topics and are well attended by community groups involved in the area. Items covered included reports on the plant, a discussion on the use of Oysters and other sealife as sampling organisms, the effects of the Central Interceptor on the plant, the success of a midges control programme introduced recently, COVID in sewage and the Hydrodynamic model. I also presented as a representative of the Forum.
On December the 7th Deputy Chair Cole and I met with the Coordinator and other staff and discussed future ideas for the forum and the role we can play. Fraser brings a lot of strengths and has experience with the Tamaki Estuary Forum so I feel we are in very capable hands.

On December 14th I attended, along with other Local Board members the unveiling of Hiwa-i-te-Rangi, the boring machine for the Central Interceptor. This project is huge and will have a range of flow on effects on the Harbour and the surrounding area.

Over the Christmas and New Year period I have enjoyed swimming in the Manukau at Taumanu Reserve. This beach is a testament to what can happen with political will and community activism. Thanks to the safeswim programme, the community can enjoy swimming there knowing the water is safe.

I was very happy to sign a letter of recommendation for an application to the Freshwater Improvement Fund which focuses on removing sediment and erosion around waterways in the Franklin region. To quote from the letter “Sediment and other pollutants coming down our awa into our moana are a major concern and are having a significant effect on our marine ecosystem. The Manukau Harbour is a taonga for the communities living around it, however the mauri of the Manukau has suffered because of ongoing pollution impacting upon water quality – this requires urgent action. Stopping those pollutants at source is the most effective and durable solution. The MHF is supportive of this ki uta ki tai approach to restoring the mauri of the Manukau Harbour.”

I thank the communities of the Manukau Harbour for allowing us to play a role in the preservation and improvement of the Harbour and look forward to continuing our work this year.

Jon Turner (Puketāpapa Local Board)
Chair of the Manukau Harbour Forum

September 2021 Board Member Report

1st  September – 30th September

General / assigned roles update

  • Transport portfolio:
    • The board approved the allocation of the Local Board Transport Capital Fund at our September business meeting. The projects funded include the completion of the Greenway from Frost Road through to Monte Cecilia Park, a pedestrian refuge outside Monte Cecilia Park, a signalised crossing on Hillsborough Road near Goodall Street, a pedestrian refuge on Melrose Road at the shops, pedestrian safety improvements at the Hillsborough/Mt Albert Road intersection. There is a small sum of money left which the board may choose to allocate to bus shelters, roadside seating, or other minor improvements. The majority of these projects were shortlisted by the previous local board but were held up by the reduced budget last year due to Covid-19.
    • Auckland Transport have begun a public consultation about small pedestrian changes at the corner of Lilac Grove, Frederick Street and Carlton Street. While it is good to see some attention being paid to the area, I feel it doesn’t go far enough in enhancing pedestrian safety.
    • With the shift to level three, operations were able to resume on the works for the Greenways project from Frost Road through to Monte Cecilia. This is “stage 1” of the project, with stage 2 to be implemented afterwards.
    • Auckland Transport is consulting on speed limit changes across the region. An area of streets in our rohe is around Wesley Primary School, which would see the speed reduced to 30km/h to make it safer for pedestrians and other modes of traffic.
    • I spoke at an online event hosted by Auckland Transport looking at parking issues across the area. One of the significant issues our area faces is people parking on footpaths and limiting access to those in wheelchairs, with prams, or who have walking difficulties.
    • Auckland Transport moved their consultation for the Safer Communities online. There were lots of questions around the poor provision of cycling infrastructure at and between the intersections.
  • Manukau Harbour Forum:
    • The Forum is very lucky to have secured the services of Dr Julie Chambers as the Forum’s new coordinator. Dr Chambers has co-chaired the Tamaki Estuary Environmental Forum and has bought some excellent energy to the role. Julie has five ‘focus areas’ – Strategy and planning to achieve the vision of the Forum, collaboration with friends of the Forum, building the knowledge base of the Forum, building relationships with mana whenua and administration. I look forward to working with her over the next year.
    • I was pleased to be able to connect members of the community with the correct council staff to get navigation lights in the Harbour fixed. These lights have an interesting list of owners, with a mix of private and public ownership, meaning a fix is not always easy.
    • I presented an update to the Southern Local Board Chairs Forum on the Forum’s work programme and the highlights of the first half of the term.

Meetings / events attended

n.b – for this month, all meetings were held online either on Skype or MS Teams.

  • 1st September – Meeting with Community Facilities and Chair Fairey.
  • 1st September – Meeting with Local Board advisors and Chair Fairey.
  • 2nd September- Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 3rd September – Three Waters discussion hosted by Local Government New Zealand.
  • 3rd September – Elected Member Discussion hosted by Auckland Transport.
  • 5th September – Three Waters hui with the LGNZ Young Elected Members network.
  • 8th September – Finance and Performance Committee workshop
  • 8th September – Meeting with Local Board advisors and Chair Fairey.
  • 9th September – Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 13th September – Local Board Chairs Forum.
  • 13th September – Puketāpapa Local Board agenda run through.
  • 13th September – AT-hosted Mt Albert Road Safer Communities consultation.
  • 15th September – Environment and Climate Change Committee workshop on Water Strategy.
  • 15th September– Catch up with advisors and Chair Fairey.
  • 16th September – Puketāpapa Local Board Business Meeting.
  • 16th September – Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 21st September – Joint Governance Working Party conversation.
  • 22nd September – Meeting with Chair Fairey and the Local Area Manager
  • 22nd September – Environment and Climate Change Committee Workshop.
  • 22nd September – Catch up with advisors and Chair Fairey.
  • 23rd September – Integrated Area Plan meeting via SKYPE.
  • 24th September – Presented to the Southern Local Board Chairs on behalf of the Manukau Harbour Forum.
  • 27th September – AT’s Cycling Single Stage Business Case update with Chair Fairey and member Doig.
  • 29th September – Catch up with advisors and Chair Fairey.
  • 29th September – Finance and Performance Committee workshop
  • 30th September – Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.

July 2021 Member Report

General / assigned roles update

  • Transport portfolio:
    • The Light Rail engagement is proceeding and there was an initial discussion with a targeted group of residents on the 15th July. We have pushed for more events to take place within the Puketāpapa area and there will be multiple events taking place during August.
    • Last month I wrote that I was excited to see the wayfinding signage installed along the Southwestern Cycleway. This was achieved through Waka Kotahi’s “Fix it Fast Fund” which I raised with Auckland Transport in November. These signs allow for pedestrians, cyclists and mobility users to identify where this ‘spine’ of our Greenway network leads to. This program is being rolled out slowly along the network and I have attached a picture ot this report.
    • I logged a poorly repaired section of the newly opened Safer Communities project outside Mount Roskill Grammar School and was pleased to see this fixed in a relatively short space of time. There remain issues further along Frost Road and I have raised these again with Auckland Transport.
    • We received an initial proposal for some raised footpath works around Roskill South Shops which we will be discussing in the coming weeks before it goes out to public consultation.
    • As part of the Huia Watermain works, White Swan Road has been closed to traffic heading towards the city. This has required a detour for both the 68 and 25B bus routes. Member Shen passed on a resident’s concerns around the extremely long walk they now had, and Auckland Transport re-routed the 68 bus to reduce the walk and connect residents on Richardson Road with the bus service.
    • The final design for the Hillsborough Road/Commodore Drive roundabout has been circulated to the public and will be constructed in this financial year.
  • Manukau Harbour Forum:
    • The “Synthesis of State of the Environment Monitoring in the Manukau Harbour” report was published at the end of June. The report provides a reliable data set to refer to in our advocacy around improving the Harbour, based on data going back to 1965.

The report confirms that the Manukau has been degraded due to decades of human activity surrounding the Harbour. Massive deforestation over the course of human occupation, high levels of nitrates in the horticultural flatlands, high levels of sediment runoff in the Northern Harbour and along the Awhitu peninsula, high levels of zinc and copper runoff from roads in the catchment, high level of pest plants and animals, and degraded streams feeding into the Harbour all contribute to a degraded ecosystem.

The report shows that there have been improvements in water quality and air quality; however, these are primarily minor improvements, starting from a low level. Coastal water quality in the Harbour is the worst in Auckland, and I believe this should be reflected in the investment allocated by Governing Body. Thankfully, the Harbour has some great swimming spots which can be seen on https://www.safeswim.org.nz/ but there are also a high number of unswimmable beaches.

The report will be published yearly from here on, and we have asked that the next iteration include an analysis of fish stocks based on the data gathered by MPI.

The report outlines much of the work being done by the Council to improve the Harbour, and it has been heartening to see the support from Councillors to improve the Harbour. To ramp up addressing the issues around the Harbour will require investment from Central Government, with potential regulatory changes needed down the line. I would like to see a stocktake of the volunteer work being done around the Harbour, although it would probably double the size of the report!

There is a need for a restoration plan for the Harbour’s ecosystem, one developed in partnership with mana whenua and looking at all of the avenues we can take to rehabilitate the ecosystem, including looking at how we manage contaminants entering the catchment on land.

  • We had an update from Sophia Olo-Whaanoa and Kowhai Olsen from Makaurau Marae on the excellent work they have done around the Oruarangi Creek and the Harbour itself.
    • We finalised the budget for the next financial year, with confirmation of funding for our co-ordinator, a comms plan, mana whenua hui and the youth sustainability wananga that has been very successful.

Meetings / events attended

  • 1st July – Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 1st July  – Community Forum at Lynfield Community Centre hosted by the Puketāpapa Youth Foundation
  • 2nd July – Manukau Harbour Forum Workshop and Business Meeting
  • 3rd July – Puketāpapa Youth Foundation intergenerational planting day at Lynfield Reserve.
  • 3rd July – Puketāpapa Business Voice Launch
  • 6th July – Spoke to Technology Students at Mount Roskill Grammar School about their designs for water monitoring in Te Auaunga/Oakley Creek.
  • 7th July – Meeting with staff from Community Facilities and Chair Fairey
  • 7th July – Meeting with Local Board advisors and Chair Fairey
  • 8th July – Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 8th July – Puketāpapa Community Network.
  • 12th July – Puketāpapa Local Board Agenda run-through (via SKYPE.)
  • 13th July – meeting with new strategic broker and Chair Fairey.
  • 14th July – Meeting with Chair Fairey and Local Board Staff.
  • 14th July  –  Meeting with Local Area Manager, Chair Fairey and Local Board Advisors.
  • 15th July – Puketāpapa Local Board business meeting.
  • 15th July – Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 15th July – Light rail listening session at Wesley Community Centre.
  • 24th July – Tupuna Maunga Authority planting on Puketāpapa. Over 2000 plants planted on the side of the maunga.
  • 28th July – Meeting with Chair Fairey and Local Board Staff.
  • 28th July  –  Meeting with Local Area Manager, Chair Fairey and Local Board Advisors.
  • 29th July- Puketāpapa Local Board workshop.
  • 29th July – Integrated Area Plan working group with mana whenua representatives.
  • 30th July – Auckland Transport Innovating Streets discussion with members of the Central cluster of Local Boards.

Disclosures

  • I am working with Friends of Wairaki stream in an admin role and will excuse myself from any decision making relating to this group.
  • I am a volunteer run director at Owairaka parkrun and organised the 17th July event and volunteered at the 3rd, 10th and 24th July events.

Recommendation

That this report be received.

Note: if other recommendations are proposed they may be subject to a Notice of Motion (refer to Standing Orders or Appendix 1 pg. 5-6 in the guidance document).

OK – what do you do?

The LGNZ guide for candidates says that “Local Board members spent on average 20 hours a week” in their role as a member. Interestingly, some people seem to think they can still hold a full time role as well as doing their duties as an elected member. In this post I will go over some of the things a member can be expected to do in a week.

Note – this was written in February 2020 – before everything changed! It still mostly holds true for Board members, with the addition of far more Skype calls now. My role as Deputy Chair has an extra layer of complexity and time added to the below.

The Workshop

This is the ‘bread and butter’ of the life of a Local Board member. Here is where we are given guidance by staff, presentations by entities who want to do things in our area, hear from CCO’s, decide on budgets and work programmes, come to a consensus and many other things.

Our board has a full day – from 930 till 5 of presentations and discussions, with a break in the middle. Over those 7 and a half hours we could have up to 9 presentations, ranging from half hour to multi-hour discussions. Board members need to be paying attention, asking good questions and showing that they are well prepared. Which leads me to my next item…

Reading

It is painfully obvious when a member hasn’t read ahead before the meeting. Often questions will be asked that are answered on the next slide, or assumptions based on past understandings can get in the way. Ideally we are provided with the necessary information at the beginning of the week, giving us time to go through everything. Auckland Council has an in-house application which allows for notetaking on the documents, making it really easy to bring up questions as they come up during the presentation. The documents can range from a 7 slide presentation, to a 100+ page document with various appendixes. Thankfully these usually include a very helpful summary of the info, and a scan and skim is usually sufficient to get up to speed with what we are being presented with.

There are also numerous reports produced by council that provide a lot of indepth background knowledge to what we are discussing. Examples of these are the council governance review, development contributions policy and all of the reports on the councils Knowledge Auckland website.

I’d say members do at least 3 hours of reading a week – sometimes more, sometimes less.

There is also the business meeting Agenda which is published once a month. Examples of these can be found here. This segues nicely into the next element of our role:

The business meeting

These take place once a month and effectively ‘make official’ the decisions we have made over the past month during workshops. Ideally most of this is ‘rubber stamping’ issues, but controversial ones will often take longer to get through. There is also space for a ‘public forum’, where members of the public can present to the Local Board about important issues they have, or to speak in support or against items on the agenda. These are formal affairs with a smart dress code and sense of ceremony. These can range in time from an hour to three or more hours long, and with our agenda run through added on, average out to an hour a week.

Community events

The ‘fun’ part of being a Local Board member. We are constantly being invited to great community events and often have to plan our weekends and nights around these. We could be at an event celebrating India’s independence, a movie in the park, sports events, tree planting… the list goes on. It felt a bit ‘weird’ going to one of these events and being treated as a “VIP”, gifted with flowers and fed first, but it also reiterates how important our role is to the community.

These events can take up a lot of time – in an ‘average’ week we probably spend 6 hours on these events, not including travel time.

Engagement events

The Local Board develops a 3 year Local Board plan, and it is really important we get community feedforward and feedback about it. We come up with a ‘draft’ plan and take it out to the community to get their ideas. For this we put on community forums – these actually happen throughout the term, once a month at varying venues. An excellent way to hear from the public, but still in need of more publicising. We also get out into schools, retirement villages and other groups to ensure we are getting a wide range of viewpoints. 

On average, probably two hours spent on engagement a week.

Professional Development

This term the council has a very good induction programme, Kura Kāwana. This consists of a number of different ‘sections’ that all help to build us to be ‘good governors.’ Topics range from Te Tiriti, to legal overviews, standing orders, quality advice and more. Scheduled on the weekdays, these also take up a portion of our time but are very well worth it. Being on a local board isn’t something that other jobs can necessarily ‘prepare’ you for – there are skills that other professions bring to the job for sure, but the importance of these development sessions cannot be underestimated. 

Emails

A slightly less fun part of the job is dealing with the avalanche of emails that come cascading into our inbox. Requests for meetings, ideas, conversations, clarifications, organisation, civil defense warnings…. On average we probably get around 20 emails a day, taking around 3 hours total a week to deal with.

Other meetings

Each local board member will have a different load here, depending on their interest and assigned roles. This term I am the Transport secondary, meaning we have a meeting with AT once a month, separate from our workshop and business meetings. For this, we have a very long list of issues that we go through with our AT liason, in an effort to ensure they don’t get lost in the system. Time will tell whether this works – so far so good!I am also on the Manukau Harbour Forum, which meets monthly and discusses a wide range of issues to do with the harbour – which has suffered from decades of neglect. This engenders an extra amount of reading and researching, as well as thought and discussion.

Across the year, we probably spend an average of two hours a week on development and other meetings.

Constituent issues

This is another favourite part of the job for me. People have lots of ideas about how we can make Puketāpapa better, and it is always really interesting to hear about them. Also, people also have lots of ideas about how Puketāpapa is being run badly – and these are usually pretty interesting as well!

We get to hear about these issues through a variety of ways – email, facebook, phonecalls, and most importantly kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face.) Sometimes this involves a casual chat at a cafe, other times I will go visit them at the place of concern.

We then have to actually deal with these issues – by contacting the right officer, logging the issue, bringing it up for discussion across the wider board.

Let’s say at least an hour a week is spent on issues.

And that’s just in the first 3 months!

I have no doubt I will find more work coming in over the years to come. An important thing to realise is that most of this stuff isn’t something you can regularly plan for – meetings come up on odd days, development days occur at different times, and everything is scattered across lots of different places. Thankfully I have an e-bike to get around!

There is also the constant feel of being on-the-job when out and about in the local area. When I see an area with too many weeds, I take a photo and log it. Maybe there’s a missing road sign – take a picture and log it. It’s the equivalent of being ‘that guy’ at parties – everytime I go out for a walk, run or a bike ride I’m looking out for something that needs fixing. 

Questions about what we do? Feel free to leave a comment or email me on email@jonturner.nz

How do Local Boards work?

If I had to choose a question, this is the one that pops up most often. Its understandable – first of all, a lot of people don’t even know what a Local Board is, let alone what a Local Board does.

The first step is understanding how Council works. Unfortunately, that’s something that a mere blog can’t explain – there’s a reason we have a very long induction process. The picture below shows the basic ‘makeup’ of Council:

Shared Governance

The council has two decision-making parts – a governing body which is made up of the mayor and 20 councillors, and 21 local boards made up of 149 members.

The governing body focuses on issues, decisions and strategies affecting the whole region while local boards represent their communities and make decisions on local issues.

These two ‘parts’ make decisions which, ideally, are then implented by the “council organisation.” The council organisation itself is massive – considering Auckland Council represents over 1.5 million people this is understandable.

The “organisation” is split up into a whole lot of different sectors that report individually to the Local Board.

Community Facilities: In charge of looking after our Parks, beaches and community assets such as halls and sportsfields. We see these guys a lot as this is an area where we can have a lot of say.

Parks, Sports and Recreation: Confusingly, this team is also involved in park stuff – but they are in charge of planning for the future as opposed to the day-to-day maintenance that CF look after.

Arts, Community and Events: This team is hugely relevant to local boards. They focus on engagement and empowerment of the community and provide a ‘human’ face to Council. We also see them often.

These are the ‘main three’ that we see most often at the Local Board. They report regularly, giving us updates about what is going on in our area.

The other sectors are: Infrastructure and environment services – they look after infrastructure (e.g stormwater, waste services). Plans and Places – in charge of ‘long-term’ thinking as to the future of Tāmaki Makaurau Service, Strategy and Integration – I kind of have no idea what these guys do. Apparently they are in charge of customer service? Libraries – Kind of obvious, quite good that this is a ‘seperate’ unit from the others.

There are also “council-controlled organisations,” which many people have heard of and know that the name doesn’t quite represent the truth. They operate at “arms length” from the Council – reporting back on what they do but not taking direction from decision makers. These include (but aren’t limited to: AT, ATEED, Watercare etc

In our Local Board office, we have some staff who work just on our local board:

Local Board Services – This team looks after … pretty much everything. They ensure our questions get to the right people, organise our workshops, ensure we are meeting deadlines, have huge amounts of local knowledge and can find out the answer to any question. They also attend all meetings and workshops, even after hours.

Democracy Advisor – In charge of looking after the correct processes in meetings, as well as ensuring all decisions are supported and followed up on by the correct staff. Prepares all our documents for business meetings and workshops, takes notes, does lots of stuff behind the scenes.

Admin Staff – Looks after reception, emails, organising members, logging issues, booking rooms, helping visitors.

We also share staff with other local boards:

A Relationship Advisor who is – for want of a better word- the ‘manager’ of the team of staff who help us. officially they “lead the political and strategic guidance provided to the Local Board Members. This involves both developing strategic advice and tailoring advice to meet the requirements of the Local Boards.”

A strategic broker – in charge of community empowerment, plan and deliver activities based on the need in communities

An Engagement Advisor in charge of engagement with the community, helping to establish our plans and ensure they meet the community’s needs, overseeing relationships with mana whenua. Often working after hours making sure our community events work smoothly

Communications advisor– in charge of social media channels, Our Auckland magazine and ensuring emergency messages get to the community.

So. That is a super quick overview of how Local Boards work – there is so much more detail I could go into but hopefully that’s enough for now – as I haven’t really started to talk about what we do!