This is an interlude from my usual monthly reports to bring you a bit about me and my Backing the Bays team standing for the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board.
A bit about me
I was born and raised in the Bays and live in Okura with my husband and our two daughters. My background is as a Policy Analyst at PHARMAC and Communications Manager at the Brain Health Research Centre. I was also a senior staffer to Murray McCully MP where I successfully advocated for members of our community.
I’m experienced in strategy and policy development, planning, and preparing multi-million dollar budgets. My expertise in evidence-based decision-making and public consultation ensures your rates contribute to projects and services that deliver.
Why I’m standing again
I’ve been a member of the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board for the last three years. I’m proud to have achieved some significant wins for our community in that time including:
successfully lobbying for a community recycling centre to service our community (one is now earmarked for Rosedale and is being prioritised);
instigating improvements to Council’s compliance enforcement;
tackling legislative roadblocks Council has to effectively enforce its own bylaws;
Successfully lobbying Council, along with the Long Bay-Okura Great Park Society, to purchase the farmhouses in Long Bay Regional Park;
Compiled the vast majority of the Local Board member-driven feedback on a range of bylaw and national policy matters
Advocating for decades-overdue safety improvements to Glenvar Road/ East Coast Road has been a passionate priority for me in the last three years. This is one area that we cannot afford to relax the pressure on as AT will time and time again do their best to defer it, but the lives of our community cannot be put at risk any longer by delaying this essential safety project.
What I want to achieve in the next term
Having a team of hard-working people committed to achieving the same goals is essential. Supporting the entire Backing the Bays team will make it much easier to achieve the big action plan we want to see delivered for our beautiful Bays.
Healthy environment
Fund greater monitoring of sedimentation controls on building sites, to help protect our waterways and marine reserve.
Lobby to ban set netting at our beaches. Proximity to the Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserve makes set netting popular at some of our East Coast Bays beaches. Set netting entails weighing down nets in the water and leaving them, collecting fish later. The practice is too indiscriminate and inappropriate activity for our busy recreational beaches. Set netting bans would not impact on the ability to line fish.
Ensure Council purchases the available land at Piripiri Point for inclusion into the Long Bay Regional Park.
Subsidised wastewater checks to ensure compliance of onsite wastewater systems.
Continue to support all our local restoration groups and volunteers who make a huge impact on the health and biodiversity of our natural environment.
Thriving communities
Provide a disability beach access mat so people with disabilities, those who are uneasy on their feet, and parents with prams can access and enjoy the beach.
Shade provisions at all major playgrounds including short-term shade sails and longer-term shade from tree plantings.
Improve community safety by reinvigorating Neighbourhood Support and supporting other organisations like North Harbour Community Patrol.
Ensure the newly purchased farm-houses that are now part of the Long Bay Regional Park (that we successfully lobbied for), are developed for and in use by the community.
Ensure that all playground renewals have design elements to cater for a range of ages and abilities/disabilities.
We want the Local Board to improve and prioritise meaningful and regular engagement with the community. We also want to do a better job of engaging with migrant families, those of Asian descent, and Māori so that decisions made take all of our residents’ preferences and needs into account.
Improved transport
We will lobby for our buses to be rapid, reliable and connected – especially to our Park and Ride facilities.
We will not support proposals for paid parking initiatives in our small-town centres and likewise, we will not support paid parking proposals at Park and Ride facilities.
Progress the town centre plan for Browns Bay and develop a greater connection linking the Village Green through to Phoenix Plaza and the beach.
Continue our relentless advocacy for the Glenvar and East Coast Roads upgrade project and ensure that the project does not suffer further delays.
Lobby Auckland Transport for quicker action on road safety improvements near schools.
Improve cycling and pedestrian options, particularly around our town centres and school zones.
Learn more about the team at www.backingthebays.co.nz
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