A note from our Local Board member – Beth Houlbrooke

Dear community groups,

I know it may seem like the Local Board is forever asking for feedback but this is all part of the legislative process and next to elections, it’s the most important thing that is decided for our communities every three years.

This strategic document sets out the objectives for the Rodney Local Board over the next three years. In a nutshell, if it is not in the plan, it will not get done.

Below are some of the initiatives from the draft Local Board Plan that will benefit the Warkworth area. These have been worked up from ideas that the community has put forward over recent years and which some of us campaigned on and said we would deliver if we were elected. Therefore it would be great to get your feedback, especially if you are supportive, on these:

  • Advocate strongly for better road maintenance and spend of the unsealed road budget
  • Safer pedestrian environments especially in our smaller but busy villages like Point Wells, Puhoi, and Whangateau
  • Improve public transport with additional stops and appropriate routes and frequencies
  • Improve pedestrian safety by constructing footpaths and pedestrian crossings especially around schools
  • Support the implementation of trails, walkways and bridle paths
  • Advocate to improve storm water and wastewater infrastructure
  • Improve water quality in our catchments
  • Improve local biodiversity through supporting pest plant and pest animal management
  • Better waste minimisation and resource recovery
  • Develop a Centre Plan for Warkworth
  • Town and village centre upgrades to support economic activity
  • Identify opportunities for growth funded projects (from Development Contributions) as we grow
  • Support the delivery of a multi-sport facility at the Warkworth Showgrounds
  • Support communities to deliver community projects and events
  • Greater attention to Emergency Management support and building community resilience (droughts/weather events/pandemics)
  • Continue to support volunteers working in our parks on restoration projects, pest and weed control.

I have paraphrased so do please go and read the plan. These are just SOME of the proposals and not all of them may make it into the final plan, particularly if they are not supported or another priority emerges from the feedback as needing more of our resources.

You can find out more and provide feedback using this link. Feedback closes on 13 August. Hard copies of the plan are also available at the library and the Orewa Council building. You can also present to us at a hearing-style event on 22 August in Orewa from 6 pm (please book via [email protected]).

Thanks for that, Beth

Auckland Emergency Management announcement

THIS IS MESSAGE CONTAINS VARIOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST.

1. Kia ora koutou – Good morning all

Last night Auckland Emergency Management sent through a message which can be circulated to your networks to provide an additional layer of support in your communities.

From Wednesday 1 April, Aucklanders who are unable to afford groceries or are in self-isolation with no access to other support networks can call us on 0800 22 22 96 between 7am and 7pm, seven days a week for assistance. If you are unsure about whether or not this is right for you, just give us a call and we’ll talk it through.

Read more about this initiative on OurAuckland:

2. All Civil Defence Emergency groups nationwide have activated with an emergency number so this message can also be distributed to your family, friends and colleagues in other parts of New Zealand.

As you are identifying and connecting with our elderly and vulnerable neighbours and community members, you may come across a few people who have specific needs or requirements that we are just physically unable to help with. Connecting locally is obviously of paramount importance but just in case please find the following information which you will find reassuring as a back up and fall-back safety net when we may not have local connections.

You can refer to the dedicated AEM Covid-19 website for updates.

Remember people are allowed to go to the supermarket or pharmacy alone. It is okay to ask neighbours or family and friends who live locally to do this for someone who is unable to go themselves (e.g. for an older person who can’t go out). If someone has urgent welfare needs and is unable to get assistance from friends, family or neighbours to get:basic supplies such as food (including food for your pets, essential toiletries, baby items, etc, then refer them (or contact on their behalf) this new AEM service. 0800 2222 96 7am to 7pm.

3. The Shore, Rodney & West Auckland Police
We have set up a new online system which you can use to report the following:
• Suspected COVID-19 L4 isolation breaches
• Businesses you suspect are breaching the essential services rule

Report to Police online @ www.police.govt.nz/105support

4. Dear community groups

Please be aware that Waste Management’s Resource Consent application to construct and operate a new regional landfill facility in the Dome Valley has been publicly notified and is now open for submissions until 26 May.

https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/have-your-say/have-your-say-notified-resource-consent/notified-resource-consent-applications-open-submissions/Pages/ResourceConsentApplication.aspx?itemId=393&applNum=BUN60339589

I know there is a great deal of interest in the community surrounding the proposed landfill so please make your contacts aware of this opportunity as it may otherwise be easily missed during the lock down period for Covid-19.

I trust you are all keeping well.
(From Beth Houlbrooke Rodney District Council)

Ahuroa Rd – updates from AT.

The design phase is progressing well and is planned for completion by December 2019. This will be followed by the procurement phase and construction starting in early 2020.

  • With regard to landowners’ comments that no approaches have been made for property acquisitions, they are still completing preparatory works before contacting landowners. The design being progressed involves sealing the current road alignment, so any new land requirements will be minimised.
  • At this stage, the first section proposed for construction (referred to as Stage 2) is the section with chainage starting at 5,875m through to 10,075m as measured from West Coast Road.
  • The timing of construction of the Stage 1 section, chainage 850m to 5,875m,will be dependent on budget availability.
  • Communication with the local board and the local community will be undertaken as the project approaches the construction phase and once a contract has been awarded. Prior to works commencing there will be specific communications around the construction methodology, timing etc., all with the aim of minimising disruption.

Request from AKL Council member Beth Houlbrooke

I wonder if you can put out a message in the Grapevine for a community contact – one person only – who would like to be the liaison for the Ahuroa community with Auckland Transport to receive and communicate updates on the sealing of Ahuroa Road.

This person will require good communication skills, be active in the community, be analytical and level headed, with a desire to work positively with the local board representative and AT project manager.

Alternatively, the school or another community group can put forward a name.

They can apply to me at [email protected]

Thanks, Beth


Message from the GrapeVine admin (Chris):

Please apply to Beth directly. If you’re interested in being this person, or nominating an individual, then please send Beth a note. – Thanks.

Auckland Regional Council – Plan Change 20

Some of you may have recently received a letter from the Auckland Council titled ‘Proposed Plan Change 20 – Rural Activity Status’? – If you have, and you struggled to know what it was about, or what this might mean for you, then the post which Phelan Pirrie (Rodney Local Council Board member) has recently posted into the Kaukapakapa Group on facebook, may help.

Link for those of you in that group (it is a closed group): https://www.facebook.com/groups/kaukapakapa/permalink/10157200196582431/

—- Phelan’s post follows —-

Plan Change 20.

A number of rural residents will have received a letter from Council about a proposed Plan Change to the rural ‘activity tables’ in the Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP).

It is probably a confusing jumble of planning jargon for anyone without a Degree in Planning so I’m going to try and explain it in plain English and in less than 2000 words (and I don’t have a planning degree).

The Auckland Unitary Plan is constantly being tested by land owners and developers and parts of it need to be reviewed because there may be unintended consequences of clauses.

In this situation there is a table of activities (see screen shots below) in ‘H19 Rural Zones’ that provides a list of things you’d normally expect to see in a rural area, and defines whether they are;
Permitted (you can just get on with it),
Controlled, (you need a consent),
Restricted Discretionary (you need a consent, and Council can choose whether to grant one or impose conditions),
Non-Complying (you need a consent but there’s a high bar applicants must jump to prove activity is OK),
Prohibited (forget it)

This link explains all the different activities in reasonably plain English. http://www.environmentguide.org.nz/…/resource-consents-and…/

Council has had some resource consent applications that have gone to the Environment Court and the judge has taken an interpretation of the AUP that wasn’t what was intended by Council and the intent of the plan.

They are proposing to change the Rural Zones activities table so that everything NOT in the table will be ‘Non-Complying’. Currently, it is ‘Discretionary’. This would set a higher bar meaning applicants would have to show that the proposed activity would not be contrary to the objectives of the AUP and the effects would be less than minor.

This would mean that you are less likely to have an unexpected non-rural type activity springing up next to you.

The other change is a change of the term ‘residential dwelling’ to ‘dwelling’ – this is due to an application where the judge’s interpretation of ‘residential dwelling” was a ‘residential care business in a three storey building complex’.

I can give some examples but it would tip me over the 2000 words.

You can make a submission on the proposed Plan Change on this link…

https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/…/pc-20-rural-activity-…

—- His screenshots have been included here too: —-

—- I hope this helps people make better sense of what they’ve sent out ?? – Chris. Below is a copy of the original letter received from the council. —-