Viewpoint – Community gets results

Thanks goes out to you, the members of our Coast community and your tireless engagement in local political issues, making sure that your voice is heard.

While I am at it, I would like to thank the journalists at Hibiscus Matters for ensuring that we remain informed, in order to participate in issues like the ones referenced below.

Ordinarily it would be politically correct for me to stay out of applications or matters that are currently before council, but in this instance I think it is important for me as an individual member to speak out, as many in our community have to date.

As reported in Hibiscus Matters, the boundary change adjustment application for Gulf Harbour Country Club was before a duty commissioner who made the decision to publicly notify the application, against the applicant’s wishes. 

As a local board – and as your resource consent leads and Hearing Commissioners in our own right – both myself and Julia Parfitt submitted strongly in favour of the application being put to public scrutiny, along with your ward councillors and members of Keep Whangaparāoa’s Green Spaces. This may not have been decided the way it was without public pressure and intense local interest that tipped the scales of the decision in the Coast’s favour. It will now be an expensive uphill battle for the applicant to take away the golf course and open space.

Ferries – need I say more? Again, ward councillors John Watson and Wayne Walker, along with very motivated locals on the Hibiscus Coast Ferry Facebook page, have been instrumental in ensuring that ferry services have slightly increased rather than been taken away. This battle is not over to restore service levels but again you, the Coast community, need to be heard on this issue.

The proposed Kainga Ora development in Millwater was another hot local issue that we received feedback on and opposed, along with the Bonair Action Group. It was likely cancelled for economic reasons but again I like to think that opponents’ very loud input had a correlation with the result.

Thanks to our MP Mark Mitchell, your local board chair Gary Brown and the Hibiscus Coast Community Patrol, along with vocal community advocates, security measures were put in place at the Hibiscus Coast Bus Station that resulted in a much safer place for our kids to catch the bus. It has also assisted our awesome local team of police to hold offenders to account.

My message to you as a community: do not stop. Your active engagement and support led to the positive outcomes referred to above and, as your representatives, we thank you.