Community planting day a success

This weekend was another fantastic community planting day, this time at Ōhuiarangi / Pigeon Mountain. We had a great turnout with families, the Scouts and other groups helping out .

There's 30,000 natives going into this area with locals schools getting involved, all organised by the Tīpuna Maunga Authority. We planted around 7,000 in a few hours but plenty more to do. There's another planting next week so get along!

Our environment needs action at all levels

Today marks the first day of a new government mandated ban on single use plastic bags. It's been a while since the supermarkets phased them out and everyone has adapted, even if remembering the reusable bags is a challenge! However plastic bags only represent a very small amount (~0.01% ) of the 1.6 million tonnes rubbish that ends up in landfill every year and while I fully support the end of single use plastic bags, we’ve got a lot more to do.

There’s definitely an appetite to do more for the environment. Over the weekend we had a number of events focused on the environment with Howick holding its first Ecoday event on Saturday, followed by tree planting with Macleans College and then Bucklands Beach clean up on Sunday with the Howick Youth Council. All events were well attended showing the keen interest that East Aucklanders have for our environment which is great.

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It’s fantastic to see that locals are keen but we need urgent action by council or our efforts are at risk of being washed away.

We need to invest heavily into water infrastructure to reduce flooding and pollution. The pipes in the older parts of East Auckland such as Howick, Pakuranga and Cockle Bay are struggling to cope with current demand, with overflows not uncommon. As housing continues to intensify, we urgently need to ensure we can meet current and future demands. The work being done to understand the current network is good but needs to be done across the region and much faster.

Last month Auckland Council declared an climate emergency which was another great start but we urgently need action. This means reducing our emissions and for Auckland 40% of these come from transport. While the transition to electric vehicles will help, we cannot all fit on the road. Public transport and active modes such as cycling and walking are essential to reducing our impact on the environment. But they need to be realistic options - reliable, affordable and accessible. Projects like the Eastern Busway can help transform our area, but much more needs to happen to ensure it delivers for more.

I’m pleased to see that soft plastic recycling is back and the government is investing $40m into waste minimisation innovation but we need to do more to reduce the waste being generated in the first place. Strong product stewardship is key to this, ensuring that those producing the waste are required to ensure it’s sensible disposal. We all have personal responsibility but we also need industry to get up to speed.

I want to see a council that leads the way, supporting local community efforts across the city backed up by meaningful action by Council that will ensure that our environment is looked after for future generations.

We've planted a million trees Auckland!

Three years ago the Mayor set a goal for Aucklanders to plant 1 million trees and we reached that target in the last few days .

It was a stunning day for tree planting in Mangemangeroa Reserve on Sunday 16 June when I joined Howick Youth Council who had organised tree planting with support from Friends of Mangemangeroa Reserve.

Plenty of young people turned up to volunteer as well as local board members John Spiller and Adele White. Mike Turinsky also arrived although wasn’t able to plant due to an injury.

Mangemangeroa looks incredible and there were plenty of stories about how people had contributed over the years. Over the years volunteers have planted over 100,000 natives and the progress is incredible. Great to see!

Cockle Bay Domain restored by community

On Saturday the weather was perfect for community planting day at Cockle Bay Domain as volunteers planted around 300 natives.

Led by Matthew Brajkovich, the Friends of Cockle Bay Domain have worked to restore the local environment by removing rubbish and planting natives.

Amazing how far this reserve has come in such a short space, thanks to volunteers and support from local organisations and council. And how much work a dozen volunteers can do in a few hours!

Point View Drive clean up a community effort

On Friday I wore my new gumboots to help fundraise for youth mental health. Today I wore them as part of a community effort to clean up Point View Drive.

This area isn't technically a reserve but is a well known lookout across East Auckland. Unfortunately some people use it as a dump site for bottles, rubbish and worse. So Howick Local Board member Mike Turinsky organised the community to clean up. Awesome to have so many people helping and we removed a lot of rubbish. Disappointed that it was necessary.

Over 30 volunteers helped collect and dispose of a big pile of rubbish in a good mornings work

Residents have been reporting these issues for some time without much success. I know Mike has been working to do what he can. Now we’ve dealt with the symptoms, he's working hard to resolve some of the systemic causes, hopefully with the broad public support we saw today he can get some traction.

Mike Turinsky thanking the volunteers and explaining the next steps

Macleans Park has new friends

Great first meeting of the Friends of Macleans Park, a new community group to reduce the pests and weeds in the park while replanting and improving the natural environment.

Plenty to do but volunteers (including the local college) are keen to get started and are led by local legend Matthew Brajkovich. Great to see this supported by Auckland Council Biodiversity team, Volunteers Manager Sarah and Pest Free Howick.

More to come so follow along at the Facebook page.

Is freedom camping free enough?

On Monday evening I attended the public meeting on the proposed Freedom Camping Bylaw.

The short version is that freedom camping is legal everywhere NZ unless expressly prohibited. This is governed by the Freedom Camping Act 2011 (from Parliament) and some of the rules are out of the hands of the council.

Councils have the ability to specify areas where it's restricted or banned but they need to be able to justify it. The grounds for restrictions can be to protect an area, access to an area or the health and safety of people in the area.

For Howick there are 12 sites where freedom camping is banned and a further 7 where it's restricted to self-contained vehicles. I encourage you to look at the online maps, but there's list of each here.

Are these the only places in our community where there needs to be a restriction or ban?

In addition, Auckland Council can

• apply a temporary ban or restriction on a place;

• provide exceptions or extensions for people;

• fine people who break the rules.

Once this bylaw is passed, changing these sites will not be quick or easy so it's important that we get this correct.

The Council is looking for feedback on this proposal up until Monday 18 February. Providing feedback can be done a few different ways, but online is super easy. There's a quick form including a really clever interactive map.

So make sure you get your thoughts through on this today at the Auckland Council website

Stickers no solution to illegal dumping.

While out in Flat Bush I came across some illegally dumped rubbish which is sadly a common sight. Stopping to report it, I noticed they had bright orange stickers on them. I was stunned to discover that these were from Auckland Council, noting that the illegal dumping was being investigated.

While I applaud Auckland Councils efforts to investigate and prosecute illegal dumping, putting a sticker on them is not the solution.

Removing these eyesores as soon as practically possible must be the first priority, followed by enforcement. Absolutely we must punish the perpetrators but an orange sticker isn’t stopping anyone.

Leave behind a warning sign that the location is being monitored but clear the site. Leaving it just encourages others and leaves locals to deal with the mess.

We also need to urgently review the inorganic collection to make it work!

We can do better than this.

Rising sea levels are putting our infrastructure at risk

Local Government NZ has released a report that shows the massive risk to infrastructure from climate change.

"At only half a metre [sea level rise] there is estimated to be $2.7 billion worth of council-owned infrastructure at risk - and that doesn't count the private buildings, the government buildings, whatever that's on top of that that's being served by that infrastructure.

"It goes right up to at three metres of sea level rise, it's estimated about $14bn of council-owned infrastructure at risk."

This is great leadership from Local Government NZ - the risk to infrastructure from Climate Change is very real and we must be planning for it now.

For Auckland with 1m seawater rise, they estimate:

• $1.4B for water (drinking, storm and wastewater)

• $78.75 for roading

• $373m for 390 public buildings (community facilities, council housing, council offices, playgrounds and significant other buildings/facilities).

Auckland has begun planning for this but we need to move faster. These costs are substantial and local government cannot shoulder this cost alone and requires a coordinated response.

Read the full report here.