March Board meeting
We had a huge number of public deputations this month - everything from Mairangi Arts Centre, to off-leash dog walking needs in Long Bay and residents and organisations across the Local Board area with storm-water related concerns following flooding events earlier this year. We have called for reports relating to most of these, so we look forward to hearing back from staff soon.
Evaluation of Auckland Council’s 2022 Local Elections
Following the local elections last year, I wrote the Local Board's feedback on the issues that we were aware of as candidates as well as feedback we'd had from the community. Auckland Council wrote up a report of their evaluation which covered Local Boards' feedback.
The report suggests the council consider moving from the postal voting method to a combination of postal and booth voting whereby booths are staffed on election day and do not close until 7:00pm. This is in response to criticism that it was difficult to cast a special vote for those who wanted to cast their vote on the final day.
Here's my feedback on the report, which was supported by all members:
agree with the recommendation to have a combination of postal voting and polling booth voting, to allow for greater choice of voting method, although it is noted that this may not greatly increase voter turnout
request that all Libraries are used as voting hubs, where trained staff are able to download and provide special voting forms, polling booths are available for the duration of the voting period, and information on the local candidates are displayed.
request that funding is made available for more meet the candidate events, and in every local board area, and that this funding go towards making these events recorded and published on an Auckland Council elections site
request that further investigation is undertaken to understand how to increase the understanding of Auckland’s complex governance model, and that this is done with partners such as the local tertiary institutions
request that Auckland Council advocate for a more responsive special voting system for those eligible voters who are not in Auckland during the election period
request that an alternative term is used to describe postal voting, to reflect the fact that the postal element is now a misnomer.
Update: rollout of Auckland Council’s kerbside food scraps collection service
What's happening?
Auckland Council’s weekly food scraps collection service is due to be rolled out to 520,000 households across most of urban mainland Auckland, with the first collections planned for April 2023. With this project, Auckland Council is delivering one of the largest-scale food scraps rollout undertaken in Australasia.
Food scraps make up approximately 45% of kerbside waste that is sent to landfill in Auckland measured by weight. Initiatives are therefore needed to reduce the amount of food scraps going to landfill. When food scraps break down they produce harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. These get into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
A collection service for approximately 520,000 urban households will initially divert around 39,000 tonnes of food scraps per annum. Over time, this is expected to increase to 75,000 tonnes per annum.
The collected food scraps will be transported to a purpose-built processing plant. The plant uses anaerobic digestion technology to break food waste down into highly valuable by-products (biogas, renewable energy and regenerative fertiliser). This will be used to grow food. Once fully operational, the plant will process 75,000 tonnes of organic material each year, producing 185,000 gigajoules of energy in the form of biogas and 200 tonnes of nitrogen in the form of biofertiliser.
Council have been trialling this service in an Area of the North Shore and Papakura since 2014 covering 20,000 households in total.
How will people use the service?
Each residential home within the collection area will receive a 23-litre kerbside bin, a kitchen caddy, a starter set of compostable liners and an information booklet. The rollout will be supported by targeted and general communications in multiple languages, direct community education and bin monitoring.
Residents will place their food scraps into their kitchen caddy (or another receptacle of choice), empty their caddy into the kerbside bin and put their bin out for collection on their normal rubbish day every week.
Auckland Council compostable liners can be used to help remove odours and keep caddies and bins clean, but using liners is not compulsory. Instead, caddies or food scraps bins can be unlined or lined with paper bags, newspaper or paper towels. If liners are used, Auckland Council pink liners are preferred.
The pink liners come in rolls of 20 at a recommended retail price of $2.80 (pricing may vary between retailers). They are available to purchase at Auckland Council service centres, libraries, selected supermarkets, dairies and convenience stores.
Multi-unit properties like apartments and retirement villages are likely to need a different service. Alternative services have been trialled for some properties in the North Shore and Papakura area. Residents share larger wheelie bins, rather than having their own individual kerbside bins. Staff are visiting these properties to identify how best to provide the food scraps collections.
What can I put in my food scraps bin?
- Fruit and vegetable scraps, including peelings, cores, stalks and skin.
- Bread, pasta and rice.
- Dairy products.
- Meat bones and scraps, including fat trimmings.
- Fish bones and scraps, including shellfish shells.
- Egg shells.
- Coffee grounds and tea bags.
- Indoor cut flowers.
- Paper towels and tissues.
- Auckland Council compostable bin liners.
When will it start for my property?
- East Coast Bays (Long Bay to Campbells Bay) will vary slightly but will have bins delivered and collection starting between May and June.
- Whangaparaoa and Orewa: Bins and information delivered in September, collection starts October.
Check your area here: https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/property-rates-valuations/your-rates-bill/Documents/proposed-food-scraps-targeted-rate-areas.pdf
The food scraps will be processed in an anaerobic digestion plant. Anaerobic digestion processes use bacteria which need to be ‘trained’ to eat food scraps. This means that the food scraps service cannot start all at once, instead areas need to be added in slowly to keep the system stable.
Council will be exploring the expansion of the service for properties outside of urban Auckland that aren't currently included. Commercial properties will not be included in this service, though staff are exploring how this service could be expanded in the future.
How much will it cost?
The food scraps targeted rate for the full 2022/2023 year is set at $71.28 per eligible property (where the service is available).
Areas that will only start to receive the service after 30 June 2023 will not be charged for the service in the 2022/2023 financial year. Once all areas are receiving the service, all areas will be charged the same rate annually as set out in each year’s annual budget.
This is a regional rollout without the ability to opt-out. I know that for some of us who compost or bokashi already, this may be frustrating however the overall significant benefits this collection change will have will be enormous.
Annual Budget 2023/24: consultation period
Auckland Council is facing an operating budget gap of at least $295milion – that was the figure before the January flood and Cyclone Gabrielle. The consultation on the proposed budget to address this funding gap was open for about a month and closed 28th March 2023.
The Local Board held two in-person events to hear people's views (one in Whangaparaoa and one in Browns Bay). I really enjoyed speaking with you all, discussing the proposals and learning what you wanted us to prioritise. Below is a recap of what the budget covered.
I'm really looking forward to reading your submissions in the following weeks.
Regional proposals
There are some significant proposals including the sale of airport shares, rate rises and increases in debt levels. Proposals to reduce operating costs by an additional $125 million across Auckland Council and Council Controlled Organisations will impact the delivery of services such as:
fewer bus trips
reducing bins across the region by 30%, garden maintenance by 80% and longer times between grass mowing
ending funding for Citizens Advice Bureau
withdrawal from funding Kauri Kids early childhood education services (Browns Bay and Stanmore Bay in our area)
ending funding for homelessness initiatives
stopping regional events (i.e. Music in Parks)
climate action-related programmes funded by general rates – including stopping or reducing the Climate Action Grant, the Live Lightly programme, and work on council land and marae
reducing regional contestable community grants
Funding cuts to Local Boards
Included in the consultation is a proposal to cut $16 million from local board operating funding across all 21 local boards. The Hibiscus and Bays share of this is $838,000. As local boards are unable to alter many contracted activities, we will need to reduce funding in discretionary areas. To meet this reduction, we will need to cut nearly 50% of our annual discretionary funding. We would have to discontinue, reduce spending or increase fees within some of these activities:
Arts and culture
Community climate action and sustainability
Environmental education (e.g, pictured example)
Events
Grants
Open space low mow or no-mow areas
Opening hours and services of libraries
Waste management
Water quality
Auckland Council departs from LGNZ
Local Government NZ (LGNZ) is the local government association of New Zealand. It represents the interests of the regional, city, and district councils in New Zealand. With subs due in March, the Mayor proposed that Auckland should leave LGNZ in order to save $400,000 per annum.
Local Boards had the opportunity to provide their thoughts to the Governing Body on this. The suggestion for discussion from staff suggested that we might want to support retaining membership, however, it wasn't quite as simple as that for me. I sit on the fence about it and get the feedback a lot that LGNZ lack teeth, that there is a lot of double up in services provided that we do as a Council already, and finally the disgruntlement that exists about LGNZ's perceived support of three waters (mainly down to a lack of communication to its members).
I presented an alternative view for discussion (below) but we ran out of time in the end to submit any views, so Hibiscus and Bays Local Board was silent on the matter. Sounds like there would have been mixed views on our Local Board anyway.
Here was what I drafted The Hibiscus and Bays Local Board provides the following feedback:
a) do not support the continuation of Auckland Council’s Ko Tatou - Local Government New Zealand membership at this time.
b) acknowledges that membership of Ko Tatou - Local Government New Zealand as a key tool for supporting local government to communicate and advocate to central government, parliamentarians, and government agencies, as a research mechanism for member authorities, and to keep relevant with advice, training opportunities and conferences.
c) note the financial constraints that Auckland Council is facing and the significant proposed cuts in the Annual Budget 2023/24 that will have notable impacts on local communities and the wider region.
d) note dissatisfaction from the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board about the agreement signed between Ko Tatou - Local Government New Zealand and central government for the purposes of building support for the Three Waters Reform Programme, without prior consultation amongst members.
e) recommend that Auckland Council has sufficient resources to carry out the work currently done by Ko Tatou - Local Government New Zealand, without being a member.
f) request that the Governing Body consider how much policy work, training and services are undertaken by Auckland Council that may be repetitive of what LGNZ provides, and what the benefits would be to bring all of that in-house.
g) recommend that the majority of Auckland Council’s Ko Tatou - Local Government New Zealand annual membership costs ($402,000) be retained as savings, but that a percentage is retained to fund necessary ad hoc policy work on significant issues.
h) suggest that Auckland Council develops relationships with comparable cities in Australia, or other international cities, to connect over policy matters relevant to large growing cities.
North Harbour Community Patrol
If you're looking for a great local organisation to get involved with, check out www.northharbourcommunitypatrol.org.nz. Volunteers give just 4 hours a month of their time (or more) to help undertake a day or night patrol shift with one or two others. We go on tasked missions from Police to do things like patrol suburbs that are getting hit hard by crime. I've been a volunteer since 2019 and absolutely love it! Erica and I headed out to patrol areas of Albany.
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