Mayors Memo

Mayor’s Message

13 Feb, 2023

Greetings,

It’s been a wild ride with the weather, with rain, rain and more rain. Kaipara is still feeling effects from the Auckland Anniversary weekend weather event. The biggest impact is SH1 through the Brynderwyns, which, like all State Highways around New Zealand is managed by Waka Kotahi NZTA and has only just opened back up to two lanes of traffic as this goes to print. I have heard frustrations from residents about the lack of detour signage, especially marking the heavy vehicle route via SH12 and SH14, causing our local roads to get hammered by the extra traffic and heavy vehicles. This has been fed back to our national roading agency and I will be keeping a close eye on it if we end up in a similar situation again.

Sadly another lingering impact has been the iconic Mangawhai Heads Surf Club, significantly damaged by a huge landslip following the heavy rain. While grateful no one was seriously injured, I am really disappointed for the Mangawhai Heads Surf Club family. Institutions like the club house, run by hard-working volunteers, are the important glue holding our communities together.

Part of knowing where to go and what to do in events is helped when you have the right information. I’ve just got Antenno on my phone, and it is a very useful tool. Council uses it to send alerts on services – things like road closures, water outages, rubbish collection reminders and more, direct to people’s phones. We also use it to share Civil Defence and weather warnings. I encourage everyone to get it to stay informed. Plus, you can also use Antenno to log service requests. It’s an easy way to let Council know if something needs fixing or maintenance.

There is plenty on the agenda for this year, and stepping out and talking with the Kaipara community about some of the issues facing the district has been top of my list. I spent time at the Paparoa A&P Show last weekend and had some great conversations with Kaipara residents. Look out for the Kaipara District Council stand again at Northland Field Days next month, where I will make an attendance, along with some of the other Councillors and KDC staff.

Until then,

Mayor Craig Jepson

Kaipara District