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The last monthly business meeting for Rodney Local Board before the local elections was held at the Auckland Council chambers in Orewa last week.
The next time the board meets it will be in November, at least a month after all the votes have been counted when polls close on October 8 – and, quite possibly, in brand new offices in Warkworth. It is understood the new board base will be in a former retail space at 3 Elizabeth Street. There will also be a smaller satellite meeting space at Kumeu.
Phelan Pirrie, who has been Board chair for the past three years, said it was good to be meeting for the final time in person again, for the first time in many months.
“It would have been nice to have been meeting in one of our new offices, but we didn’t quite make it because of Covid,” he said. “But next term, the local board will have significant new offices in Warkworth.” He said his nine years on the board had been challenging, especially since Covid-19 struck two years ago. “This term has been extraordinarily difficult, with the arrival of the pandemic and the dramatic effect it’s had on budgets,” he said. “We’ve had to accept the unpalatable reality that big ticket aspirations are out and belt-tightening is in.”
However, he said he was proud of what the Board had managed to achieve, especially its controversial Transport Targeted Rate “Sitting around complaining and not making progress on issues delivers no tangible results. We’ve shown that if local boards get the budgets and decision making, we can deliver quickly for our communities.”
Pirrie also warmly thanked Council staff, deputy chair Beth Houlbrooke, who is also standing down, his wife Alli and his fellow Board members.
