Disclaimer
The information on this page has been provided by the candidates. It does not reflect the views or positions of Auckland Council.
Candidate statement
I have resided in Te Atatu Peninsula for 20 years and recently shifted to Te Atatu South. I am a self-employed architectural designer and have worked in the building industry for over 50 years and a 5 year term as a lecturer at Unitec in the National Diploma of Architectural Technology. I am outraged at the fees Auckland Council, Watercare and AT, charge for the resource and building consent processes. These are entrenched monopolies with no commercial competition to set fair and reasonable fees. I am concerned at the face of West Auckland is being changed from the single house with a yard for kids to play; now to having 11 units on a site with no carparking spaces on the site. This creates a problem for street parking and secondary where car thieves come regularly so we have the police helicopter nearly every night. This is not my west.
Why I want to be elected
My fundamental objective would be to make the Auckland Council more efficient and lower the cost to Ratepayers and Paying Customers for the various Services provided by the Auckland Council and it's CCO's (Council Controlled Organisations) such as Watercare, Auckland Transport etc. I would seek to disestablish "Panuku" the Development Wing of the Auckland Council, as this entity should not exist, as the Auckland Council is an Administrative Body, not a Development Company.
My key skills and qualities
I am a Self Employed Architectural Designer with over 50 years experience in the Construction Industry and I did a 5 year "Sabbatical" at Unitec, Mt Albert to Lecture in the National Diploma of Architectural Technology course. In this Occupation, I meet Clients, I listen to their "wish list" & go through a Process of Design to give them the best possible outcome balancing the Council's Planning and Building Rules to acheive all I can within their Budget, so would like to do the same for Council.
My top three key issues
1) Reducing Rates without reducing services, by improving efficiencies with better Staff training. 2) Review all Auckland Council Services & the Fee's that are charged for those Services, which are significantly disproportinate to the Salaries Paid to Staff in those Departments 3) I would like the Auckland Council Staff to actually appreciate a Paying Customer & help them, rather than the current negative adversarial processes that are in place, so they actually value & assist those Customers.
My position on key topics
Transport
I would like imbalance of cycleways to be addressed, as cyclists pay no registration/road user taxes of any form, yet "demand" cycleways at the expense of motorists. I am concerned at the Barges in the Waitemata Harbour drilling bores for Geotechnical Studies for what - a Bridge or a Tunnel in the centre of Auckland which makes no sense to me? Firstly is a second crossing really necessary? If so are there better options for a second crossing in a better location? I disagree with Chris Bischop!
Water
Auckland has a high annual rainfall and we should never have any shortage of Potable Water. I do not beleive that any ethnic group should have any say over the supply, storage and distribution of Potable Water to the Auckland Council Ratepayers and by default the CCO, Watercare. The Auckland Council still has "Drains" that are "Combined" meaning that Sewerage and Stormwater are in the same drain, this is 3rd World to me and totally unaccepatale in 2025. They need immediate attentention.
Built environment
As I stated earlier, I am an Architectural Designer with over 50 years in the Construction Industry. I have been through various "District Schemes" over those years with draconian rules, to the current "Unitary Plan" which is a mess, the whole built environment character is changing with many terrible examples of poor architecture and design, just a maximization exercise to fit as many boxes as possible on a Site, many without carparking, especially in Te Atatu Peninsula and West Auckland.
Natural environment
I beleive that it is already well protectect with our existing rules and have no further comment to make
Community
This is a "utopic concept" not a reality; it is up to the individual members of such communities to find commonalities and work together to make a strong community. I have lived in Te Atatu Peninsula for 20 years and long considered it to be my slice of "Utopia", but in recent times this has been let down by bottom feeders coming into "our house", stealing from letter boxes, stealing courier parcels from properties, stealing cars and breaking into houses! I like our Te Atatu Facebook page!
Economic and cultural development
I have seen the demise of small businesses in West Auckland, burnt by Big Stores and since the Covid lockdown, by "online" shopping, I viewed a News item that showed "Temu" is now 17% of all retail in NZ.(?) I have now also seen a recent News item that Amazon is hurting and wanting to take on Temu, but now questions are being asked about ethical buying and sourcing cheap goods made via "slave labour" so seems to be a no win, with cheap articles that don't last and end up in our landill?
Well-managed local government and outcomes for Māori
There is NO agreement between Local Governemnt and "Maori", this is only the Domain of Central Governemnt and Maori. I am concerned that we now have an "Apartied" System of Governemnt where 7 seats are reserved in Parliament based on Race, exactly the same as the Springbok Protests in Auckland in 1981. I believe all NZ Citizens are equal and one one race is superior to any other in any way. I am happy for the Ports of Auckland to stay in place, just managed better to equal Tauranga Port.
Candidate's supporting links
These links to external websites have been provided by the candidates. The content on these websites does not reflect the views or positions of Auckland Council.