Have you come across broken or damaged footpaths in your neighbourhood? Well we’ve created handy form for you to report these issues so that we can log them into the system to be fixed up.
Wesley keeps its name
After a developer tried to use the Wesley name for a new residential suburb in Franklin in 2017, the local community campaigned to show what the name means to them and why it needed to stay central. We supported them with public meetings, coordinating the campaign, and working with the Mt Roskill Puketapapa Historical Society to promote an online petition, as well as door-knocking in the area for more signatures.
The developer withdrew their application for the name, and the Wesley community then applied, through local Member of Parliament Michael Wood, to make their name official. It was gazetted in November 2018 and officially approved in early 2019.
Safer Three Kings: No More Bottle Stores
In 2018 we helped the Three Kings community to stop a new off-licence alcohol store from opening in their neighbourhood, and we won!
The campaign included several public meetings, encouraging and gathering submissions opposing the new store for the liquor licence process, an online petition signed by over 300 locals with several hundred more paper signatures, and working with Michael Wood, MP for Mt Roskill, and the Puketapapa Local Board.
The application for a new off-licence (bottle store) at 509 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, was WITHDRAWN by the applicant,because of the large number of community objections – well done everyone for speaking up and making sure Super Liquor and the applying business owner knew Three Kings wasn’t ok with another bottle store in our community.
This is a huge win, thank you so much for your support!
Petition background
Alcohol Healthwatch estimates alcohol-related harm in New Zealand costs $14.5m each day. The brunt is disproportionately on youth, Maori and Pasifika in our communities, and there is a link between high density of off-licences and the heavier drinking patterns that result in much of the harm. Harm includes the health of the drinker themselves, such as increased rates of cancer and fetal alcohol syndrome, as well as harm to others, with alcohol playing a direct or indirect role in many fire fatalities, drownings, suicide and self-inflicted harm deaths, and the growing road toll.
43% of all alcohol is sold from off-licences, like the one proposed. This Super Liquor would be a large store, the size of the old bed shop, likely focused on selling bulk amounts of alcohol at low prices. It would increase the amount of alcohol in our community when we need to limit supply, and in particular reduce sales from off-licences where the liquor is then consumed in unsupervised circumstances (in contrast with on-licences).
Three Kings already has a large number of off-licences and problems with anti-social behaviour as a result of alcohol abuse.
There have been repeated incidents of violence and abuse in the carpark across the road from the proposed site, at 546 Mt Albert Rd, with alcohol playing a role. Several nearby shops, including existing bottle shops, have been violently robbed in particular the Liquor Legends on Duke St and the Crown Superette on Melrose Rd.
Local schools and parks end up vandalised and littered with broken glass, as people drink alcohol purchased at bottle shops in public despite liquor bans. Resources of both council and schools have to be used to clean up the mess, when some of it could be avoided by reducing the sale of alcohol in the area.
There are a number of local sites of cultural importance where anti-social behaviour fueled by alcohol would be inappropriate, including places of worship such as the almost adjacent Three Kings Congregational Church, and Ranfurly Retirement Village which is a war memorial to the Boer War and thus a place of remembrance as well as home to some of our more vulnerable older people.
Finally, the District Licensing Committee process allows people to make submissions to object to the application, and this petition is an important opportunity for those who can’t make a submission to still be able to show their opposition. It is possible there will also be a hearing on this application, particularly if the petition is signed by a lot of locals, which will provide another opportunity for the local community to have a say.
Our submission on the Sky City deal legislation
Here is our submission to the Select Committee considering the legislation that will enable the Sky City convention centre-for-pokies deal to happen. You can read the legislation itself, and make your own online submission, here. The Greens also have a quick online form to make a submission that may be easier for those who want to show their opposition but don’t have a lot of time.
Submission on the New Zealand International Convention Centre Bill
1. Roskill Community Voice is a political organisation, established in 2010. which contests local body elections in the Puketapapa Local Board area, part of Auckland Council. We are part of City Vision, and as such are endorsed by Labour, the Greens, and community independents. We are currently represented on the Puketapapa Local Board by Julie Fairey and Michael Wood, and are running a full slate of six candidates for the 2013 elections, including Fairey, Wood and four others; Garth Houltham, David Holm, Harry Doig and Shail Kaushal. While we are endorsed by both Labour and the Greens we set our policy independently and this submission has been primarily written by Julie Fairey, who is a community independent and not a member of any political party. We have also had feedback from our community in the Puketapapa area and further afield in Auckland which has informed and aligned with the views expressed in this submission.
2. Roskill Community Voice has taken a strong stance against the proliferation of pokies since our very beginning. We have consistently advocated for measures that will reduce the number of pokies in our community and in Auckland; including a sinking lid without relocation for Puketapapa and the Auckland region.
3. In 2012 Board member Fairey moved a Notice of Motion for the Puketapapa Local Board to oppose the Sky City Convention Centre deal on the basis that it would increase the number of pokies in Auckland. This Notice of Motion was amended, and passed unanimously by the Board, including the following clause specifically on the deal itself:
“That the Puketapapa Local Board supports a new international convention centre for Auckland, but does not support any deal that would result in an increase in gambling machines in Auckland, including an increase in any venue, in accordance with our position on gambling machines in our 2011 Local Board Plan.”
4. Roskill Community Voice does not support the international convention centre deal, even with the reduction in pokies that has now been agreed. We consider the business case for the International Convention Centre weak and flawed, in particular the reliance on an increase in harmful pokies and electronic gambling tables, as well as an increase in casino space, to secure Sky City’s funding for the construction. In a very short period of time the limited public benefit of not paying for the cost of construction will be overtaken by the very real public costs of gambling harm. Any ongoing jobs created are likely to be much lower than the estimates given in the media, as shown by comparable developments in Australia.
5. We specifically object to the 35 year licence guarantee, which inhibits future governments and council from measures to limit the harm from the casino, by requiring multi million dollar compensations to Sky City. This is not only a bad way to make law it also undermines the sovereignty of future Parliaments.
6. We further object to the expansion of gambling for a business which returns a far smaller share of its revenue to community projects than other outlets whose facilities are being (properly) reduced. Casinos pay a very small portion back to the community and make very large profits, as well as causing significant harm to individuals, families, businesses and communities.
7. We also hold very real concerns about the process by which this legislation has come about. The tender process was not sufficiently transparent, with Sky City appearing to be favoured early in the process. In addition subsequent negotiations between the Government and Sky City do not seem to have delivered a very good deal for the Government party, perhaps in part because key Ministers and the Prime Minister were vociferous in their support for such a deal to the point where it became politically necessary to them for a deal to be concluded with Sky City, to the detriment of their bargaining position.
8. Roskill Community Voice feel strongly that this is a deal that is being imposed on Auckland by Parliament, which is clearly not wanted by Aucklanders and is the equivalent of a whole new casino in our city. It is in direct contradiction of the wishes of many communities, Local Boards and the Governing Body of Auckland Council. We submit that the legislation should not proceed.
9. We would like to appear to speak to our submission and request that the Committee travel to Auckland to hear submissions.
Media Statement: Commissioners Ignore Local Community on Pah Rd Warehouse
“Despite strong opposition from local residents and organisations, and a Council planning report recommending against it, commissioners have granted a resource consent for the Pah Rd Warehouse proposal,” says Julie Fairey, Roskill Community Voice member on the Puketapapa Local Board.
The decision of the three independent commissioners was released on April 13th. “Since then we have been contacted by many locals disappointed that their very real concerns about parking, traffic, noise, protected trees, flooding risk and the character of the neighbourhood have been dismissed by commissioners who don’t have to live with the consequences of their decision,” says Michael Wood, Roskill Community Voice member on the Puketapapa Local Board.
“Given the Council planner’s recommendation against the Warehouse building on the Pah Rd site and the high level of local opposition the independent commissioners should have declined this application. We are supporting residents to investigate the options for appealing the decision, including the Environment Court and we are convening a public meeting for further local discussion of the issue,” says Wood.
The public meeting will be held at the Fickling Centre (beneath the Mt Roskill Library, Three Kings) at 2.30pm on Sunday May 8th.
“It is particularly worrying that the commissioners’ report is so dismissive of residents’ concerns, implying that locals have an elitist attitude towards the Warehouse as a company,” says Fairey. “Most of the people we have spoken to who are opposed to the Warehouse building on Pah Rd have told us they shop at the Warehouse themselves, and would not support any ‘big box’ retail going in to an inappropriate site. What is the point of having so-called ‘independent’ commissioners if they are not going to take submitters at face value?”