Councillor Comment

 

With Otamatea Ward Councillor Jonathan Larsen

I have submitted three motions to be included in the agenda of the next Council meeting which is to be held on 28 March as follows.

Completing Mangawhai Activity Zone (MAZ)
MAZ is rapidly becoming the centre of outdoor activities at Mangawhai. Council had collected (and not used) $3,870,000 in reserve contributions prior to the end of the 2017 – 18 year, and a further $696,000 to the end of January 2019 (total $4,566,000). Reserve contributions are collected from subdivision and are supposed to be used to purchase new and upgrade existing reserves to compensate for the effects of population growth. The MAZ project perfectly meets the criteria for the use of these funds. 

MAZ has only ever received $200,000 from Council and that was way back in 2010. The rest of the park has been funded from $1.5 million of fundraising and over the past seven years the committee has contributed more than 16,500 hours of voluntary work to the development of the site. MAZ is extending the skate park starting in July this year (using a grant received from NRC) and want to retain the contractor to complete the park using a grant from KDC and further fundraising. If this is successful it will result in the only Olympic standard skate park in New Zealand. With skateboarding being a full status sport at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, this would become a real drawcard for the local area.

I have proposed that the CEO prepare a report on providing a reserve contributions grant to MAZ to help the park to be completed. If this motion is successful the report will be brought back to Council for a decision in May.

Completing Kaiwaka Fitness Trail
Last year the Kaiwaka Sports Association (KSA) completed the concreting of the fitness trail at the Kaiwaka Domain. Even in its uncompleted state the trail is very well utilised. KSA wants to complete the trail by installing a series of high quality exercise stations along the trail. In a similar way to Mangawhai, Kaiwaka and surrounds has experienced a large amount of growth in recent years, and as a result substantial amounts of reserve funds have been collected - Kaiwaka and surrounds - $461,000 prior to the end of the 2017-18 year, a further $67,000 to the end of January 2019 (total $528,000). Despite this, only $55,000 of these funds have been committed to projects in the 2019-2021 period.

I have proposed that the CEO prepare a report on providing a reserve contributions grant to allow the fitness trail to be completed. If this motion is successful the report will be brought back to Council for a decision in May.

Getting Insley Street Pedestrian Bridge underway
I previously wrote about trying to get a pedestrian bridge constructed beside the Insley St (Tomarata Rd) bridge. Having no bridge there is a particular safety issue, particularly for kids getting to and from Mangawhai Beach School. My investigations found that the plan for such a bridge doesn’t provide for its construction until after 2028 – a timeframe that is obviously unacceptable to many in the community. 

To get this initiative moving I have proposed that the CEO prepare a report on the feasibility of building the bridge much sooner, including what would be required in the way of funding and further consultation. If this motion is successful the report will come back to Council for consideration.

I’ll keep you updated on progress with these initiatives.

 If you have any community projects or issues that you would like assistance with, I can be contacted on 021 185 8389 or Cr.Larsen@kaipara.govt.nz. Check out my ‘The WorkBoot Councillor’ Facebook page for regular updates.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this column are those of the writer and do not represent the consensus position of Council.