Decision digest | Regional Strategy and Policy Committee

03 December 2015

Coastal management, fresh water quality and council’s submission on pokies feature at RSP meeting

Water featured strongly on today’s Regional Strategy and Policy agenda with major decision items focussing on sea water (the Coastal Management Strategy) and fresh water (National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management). The committee also considered the draft policy for Business Improvement Districts. The following is a digest of decisions made.

The agenda is available on Auckland Council’s website and minutes will be added once confirmed. This meeting was alsowebcast on the council’s website and items are available on demand.

Items 1-8 are administrative items, excluding public and local board input which is summarised below. Items 15-17 were approved without debate and there were no extraordinary items.

Item 5: Public Input

COMET (Auckland Community Education Trust) Chief Executive Susan Warren presented an update on the recently launched (27 November 2015) Ngā Reo o Tāmaki Makaurau, the Auckland Languages Strategy to the committee. The vision for the strategy is, ‘A multilingual Auckland that benefits socially, culturally and economically from an increasing number of Aucklanders speaking more than one language’.

“This is the first step towards reaping the benefits that our diverse community can offer,” said Ms Warren.

Item 6: Local Board Input

Hibiscus and Bays Local Board Chair Julia Parfitt spoke to the committee, in support of the Coastal Management Strategy for the Auckland Region (Item 9), with particular reference to the current coastal management issues at Orewa.

Ms Parfitt acknowledged the integrated approach proposed for Orewa Beach, which combines many different tools for managing its coastal issues, as well as future proofing, which has been recognised by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment as showing leadership and innovation.

Item 9: Coastal Management Strategy for the Auckland region

Auckland Council chief engineer Sarah Sinclair presented on the Coastal Management Strategy (working title), which looks at issues relating to coastal management and coastal erosion across the Auckland region.

The approach outlined in the document plans to align work programmes around asset management, and other initiatives, to take a regional perspective and seek consistency across projects.

Item 10: National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management – update to Auckland Council’s Progressive Implementation Plan

The committee adopted the updated Progressive Implementation Programme for the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPSFM). This will be publicly notified before the end of the year.

The NPSFM requires Auckland Council to review and, if necessary, revise, adopt and publicly notify changes to its programme for progressively implementing the national strategy by 31 December 2015.

Item 11: Draft Business Improvement District Policy (2016) – approval to consult

The committee approved the Draft Business Improvement District Policy (2016) for public consultation.

The key differences between the 2011 and 2016 versions of the policy include reviewed accountability; changes that reflect the new service delivery model and a clarification on roles and responsibilities of the Auckland BID Programme partners.

Item 12: Reserve revocation and disposal recommendation report – 24R Linwood Avenue, Forrest Hill

Devonport-Takapuna Local Board members Grant Gillon and Mike Cohen spoke in opposition to this item. The committee decided to maintain the reserve status over this land and did not approve the recommendation for disposal.

Item 13: Auckland Council submission on proposed changes to the minimum rate of return to authorised purposes for class 4 (pokie) gambling

Auckland Council strongly opposes the government’s proposal to freeze the amount of pokie money returned to communities through grants.

In its submission to the Department of Internal Affairs’ Gambling Act 2003 consultation on proposed changes to the minimum rate of return from pokie gambling, council highlighted the need to stick to the original plan and increase the amount of money the gambling sector must give back to the community. The committee retrospectively approved this submission, which was endorsed by the committee chair in order to meet the consultation deadline.

Read more about this item on OurAuckland.

Item 14: Rainbow Communities Advisory Panel work programme for the 2015/16 financial year

The committee approved the Rainbow Communities Advisory Panel work programme for the 2015/16 financial year.

Ends

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