Letter from Manager, Chris Sutton Thank you to the eighty business people who attend the Breakfast with Mayor Len Brown. A special thanks to Frank Solomon from the Solomon Group who blessed the food. Speakers, Lisa Clark from Three Brothers told us how their business started 34 years ago in Morrin Rd and the importance of networking within your local business community and Pat Sneddon, Chairman of the Manaiakalani Trust outlined the success of the Trust in getting a NetBook into the hands of every child in Tāmaki. This Trust was featured a few weeks ago on TV 1’s Seven Sharp and was the recipient of $100,000 from Will.I.Am, Hip Hop artist and philanthropist. The academic achievement rates for Pacific and Maori students have escalated sharply with the comprehensive role out of thisprogramme. Pat encouraged local businesses to support the programme by giving students work experience. I received an email from Christine Cormack, Centre Manager for the YMCA Lagoon Leisure & Fitness who said ‘Thank you so much for a lovely morning – I really enjoyed the speakers and was particularly inspired by Pat from the Manaiakalani Education Trust.’ If you would like to find out more about the Trust go to www. manaiakalani .org for more information.
8 in one night! I can’t thank all the business people who bothered to reported damage to their cars enough. Their reports to both the Police and the PBA office meant that we were able to collate valuable footage that was sent to the Police. Arrests were made and the children dealt with.
Over a two week period our office was told about 15 cars that had been broken into –
Opening of the over bridge with Mayor Len Brown & Gerry Brownlee
The transition from the four Councils to the Supercity has been an understandably massive undertaking and many of the processes and responsibilities are still being worked through. With Auckland City Council our town, footpaths, car parks and the roadway of our service lanes were cleaned each day by one contractor. The physical areas of the town have now been divided up and have become the responsibility of both Auckland Council and Auckland Transport which has sadly made things a little more complicated that it used to be. We hope that the roles and services will be sorted out soon. In the meantime I would appreciate receiving reports of an increase of rubbish and loose litter that you may have noticed in our car parks.
The PBA office, tries very hard to report and sort out reported problems with footpaths, crossings, and gardens. With the new Auckland Council structure still settling in we have at times found that some projects have taken ages to be sorted, for example the lack of visibility on the pedestrian crossing between Health Star Pacific and Housing NZ. Some of the vegetation has been removed but over the next 6 months the crossing will be raised to The Mayor’s focus was on the possible slow traffic down. If you have concerns outcomes of the huge investment that is regarding any of the above, let us know as currently going on in Panmure and Tāmaki. we understand the best way to report The Mayor told us about the rapid changes problems to the Auckland Council Call that had occurred after the completion of Centre and if problems are not dealt with the new transport hubs at New Lynn and within a reasonable time frame we know Manukau giving confidence to businesses for how to escalate the situation. a viable economic future. He then took questions from the floor which ranged from Lisa and I along with Transport Minister complaints about the building consent Gerry Brownlee, Mayor Len Brown and process, the reasons for the switch to electric Auckland Transport Chairman Dr Lester trains and the fact that the Council Levy and other dignitaries attended the contractors will no longer be mowing the ribbon cutting for the opening of the grass verges. Even though there were not Ellerslie/Panmure Highway over bridge. so many people attending, I felt that the The completion of this bridge over the rail atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly corridor is a major milestone in the first and the attendees took the opportunity to phase of the $1.5 billion Auckland Manukau ‘talk business.’ Eastern Transport Initiative (AMETI) and I meet with Auckland Transport to discuss has opened three months ahead of schedule. Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said, the planting in the median strip at the “I’d like to offer my congratulations to western end of town which had sunk considerably and had become a trip hazard. Auckland Transport and Fletcher Construction for delivering this milestone The garden in front of Designer Fabrics, 30 Queens Rd has not been replanted since for the first phase of the AMETI. Improving the transport links in this economically Stage 3 of the footpath upgrade, 2009. important part of Auckland is the Work will need to be done on the drainage in the garden before it can be planted.
government’s next major focus for Auckland’s transport network.” Now work on the new Panmure Station building has been speeded up and this will be opened before the end of the year. I was fortunate to be able to say a few words about my relationship with Paul Clapshaw over the past seven years that I have worked for this Association. Each year, I would send him an invite to dress up for our Christmas Parade and one year he took me up on my offer. He asked me what I wanted him to come dressed as and I told him that he could come dressed as anything his heart desired. Paul took himself off to Desiree Costume Hire and came dressed as a Dick Turpin the Highway man. This was very fitting as the Dick Turpin was known to rob from the rich to give to the poor and that role captured exactly what Paul was about – getting on an doing things to help others, always with a twinkle in his eye and a wry smile on his face. We will miss Paul.