The Local Board: Heritage Month | Auckland Opinion | Local Voices from Auckland, New Zealand

 Matiu Local Board

Minutes of the monthly meeting held Thursday, 6 October, 2011

Venue Service Centre, Matiu

Chair M. Steele-Martin QSM

Deputy Chair S. Wong

Members M. Fortescue MONZ, A. Patel, F. Sefuiva

In attendance Ania Greene-Dreeme, Relationship Manager

 

Chair

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Well, I say good evening, but the weather's taken a bit of a turn for the worse this week, hasn't it? Rather like the All Blacks'chances.

Member Sefuiva

Do you, Monty? I'm not so confident.

Member Wong

Same here. Have you seen what the TAB is offering on the Wannabes and the Saffers? I'm tempted to put a few bucks on both of them.

Member Patel

That's not very patriotic. I'm 100% Kiwi through and through. Gotta back our boys.

Relationship Manager

The chair has declared the meeting open. If this chit-chat carries on any longer I'm going to have to record it in the minutes.

Member Fortescue

Quite right, dear. My late husband never could abide men standing around at social functions and talking about football. Said all that chatter interfered with his solving of complex problems regarding the bridge.

Member Wong

What sort of social functions were they, Mabel?

Member Fortescue

The bridge club, of course. Well, the golf club too, but …

Chair

Ahem. The Relationship Manager has made a very valid point. We should concentrate on the agenda. Now, I have to tell you that I have received a letter from the Mayor …

Member Wong

With joined-up writing?

Members Sefuiva, Patel (as one)

Order Mr Chairman. Order. I really must protest …

Chair

C'mon Sammy, that was a bit below the belt. We know you're the party candidate for the election but we did agree that we'd keep politics out of the local board.

Member Fortescue

Election? What election? It doesn't seem like three years since we had the last one and that nice little man who smiles all the time won.

Member Sefuiva

I think you've just summed up the last national election and the last council election rather well, Mabel.

Member Wong

I withdraw the comment, Mr Chairman. Though I'm blessed if I can understand how you can keep politics out of an elected local government board.

Member Sefuiva

Your lot had a bloody good go when they appointed all the members of Transport and Water and Waterfront and Economic Development …

Chair

Order. Order. As I was saying, I have received a communication from the Mayor regarding the Heritage Festival. He says this is an extremely important initiative from the council and he wants suggestions from all the local boards as to how we can help celebrate it.

Member Patel

I've got an idea. We could instruct the planning commissioners not to give any more permits for heritage buildings to be torn down to build carparks.

Member Sefuiva

And we could ask the nobs in Aotea Square to let local boards have a say in what happens in their neighbourhoods. They wouldn't have a clue what's important to us in Matiu. When was the last time anyone saw a town planner around here? You look around, tell me when was the last time you saw one of our original settlers'cottages or a public building in this area that's had a cent of TLC spent on it?

Member Fortescue

Last Sunday.

Chair, Members Patel, Wong, Sefuiva (as one)

Last Sunday? Where was that?

Member Fortescue

Well, my granddaughter Charlotte - you know, my oldest, Phyllis's, girl - came and picked me up and took me out to my great grandson Liam's first birthday party at their new place in Clevedon. And there we were, driving along one of those nice country roads, and I said to Charlotte, 'Look at that nice house with the cottage garden and the picket fence and the pool, that used to belong to our neighbours', Mr and Mrs Wynne-Jones. They moved it out here when the developers put up six townhouses on the section next door to us. I'm just glad my late husband wasn't alive to see it because the shade falls right where he used to plant his tomatoes. And his hollyhocks. But anyway, my point is, you can still see our heritage. You just have to drive out to Clevedon because it's all been moved out there.

Member Wong

Or Kumeu. My uncle's fruit shop from Grey Lynn is now a café in Kumeu. They do a very good eggs Benedict on Sunday mornings.

Member Sefuiva

I hear the hospital board's pulling down more buildings to put up carparks.

Chair

Yes, I read that in the Daily Eyestrain. Oh no, that's right, it wasn't in the Eyestrain, it was in that very good paper that used to come out in the Eyestrain and covered all the community news.

Relationship Manager

You mean the Central Follower?

Chair

Heavens above, no. This was a real newspaper. It won all the journalism awards. The name escapes me now but it's not important. Well, obviously it wasn't important to the people who put out the Eyestrain, otherwise we'd still be getting it.

Member Sefuiva

Have any of you been to the hospital lately to visit someone? I went to see a mate the other day and it was $18 to get in the gate. I reckon those guys on the health board have figured out it's more profitable to have shares in Wilsons Carparks than it is to look after sick people.

Relationship Manager

Excuse me butting in, but I think the Chair indicated that we were supposed to be discussing the Mayor's letter about heritage.

Member Wong

We were. That's where half the hospital board's heritage has gone, bulldozed for carparks. And don't start me on the airport.

Chair

No, no, Ms Greene-Dreeme makes a good point. I think the Mayor is looking for something a little more … ah, constructive from us. Anyone got any suggestions?

Member Patel

Yes, Monty, I do. I would like to move - and I hope someone will second - that we write to the Mayor, congratulating the council and its, er, umm, subsidiary organisations, for their work in encouraging the public of Auckland to come down to the waterfront for the recent World Cup celebrations ...

Member Wong

Not forgetting the part that the governing party played in that great night's organisation, of course …

Member Patel

Naturally, Sammy. No one in Auckland will ever forget that what happened on Opening Night was entirely the responsibility of the Great Cheerleader and his sidekick, the Minister for the Rugby World Cup. However much they might want us to.

Chair

Easy, Adi, you're sailing a bit close to the wind on the party politics rule. Better get to the point.

Member Patel

Well, my suggestion to the Mayor is that we take note of how the public of Auckland have embraced the activities on the waterfront, at Queens Wharf and the like, the public access to the harbourside, the freedom of being able to get right out on their harbour at Queens Wharf and Captain Cook Wharf. It would be a wonderful symbol of Auckland's Heritage Month to mark the occasion by making the whole of the harbour permanently accessible to the citizens. Tear down the barriers. Tear down the Red Fence. Let freedom reign. May the people of Auckland see and smell and taste and walk upon their waterfront unencumbered, uninhibited …

Member Fortescue

Well, perhaps not totally uninhibited, Sammy. I think there are times when a little bit of inhibition has its place.

The board (as one)

Hear hear! Well said, Sammy! Take a letter, Ms Greene-Dreeme! Etc.

Relationship Manager

With respect, Mr Chair. There is just one small problem with Member Patel's suggestion, however laudable it may be.

Chair

And what might that be, Ms Greene-Dreeme?

Relationship Manager

Well, it rather pertains to the place of the so-called Red Fence, Mr Chair. You see, it's a Category 1 listed place.

Member Patel

You mean the symbol of everything that separates Auckland and Aucklanders from their harbour is … forever f-f-f .. I'm sorry, pardon my language … Protected? It's a heritage site? It's the only structure in the whole of Auckland that can't be torn down for a f-f-f … I'm sorry, pardon my language … Carpark? We can lose the St James Theatre, His Majesty's Arcade, the … Oh, I don't know what, everything that is relatively near and dear to us, but the symbol of the 1951 Waterfront Strike, Massey's Cossacks, the …

Chair

Easy, Adi, I think some people might interpret that reference as something to do with National P… er, for the minutes, Ms Greene-Dreeme, a small n and p if you don't mind … politics.

Relationship Manager

Exactly so, Mr Chair. But Member Patel has hit the nail on the head. The Red Fence is totally protected. Category 1. It must forever stand between the … er, citizens and their waterfront. I mean, the sea.

Chair

Meeting adjourned.