JOHN ELLIOTT: LOCAL NEWS

John Elliott: Greg Moyle shows me around his school gardens

He’s quite the local benefactor, Greg Moyle, as many of us know and I have known about his project making gardens in local schools for some time.

This month he took me on a cook’s tour of some of the school gardens he has set up with the help of Rotary. These gardens were initiated by Greg about seven years ago, and some are growing lots of food and are well tended.

Greg has something of a garden menagerie in his extensive backyard in Herne Bay where he gathers eggs from his little army of chooks, and fruit and vegetables which he grows there and on a farm property south of Auckland. These are sold at the markets to provide revenue for the timber, bolts and compost he needs for his boxed vegie gardens. His produce includes honey, figs, avocados, walnuts, pears, almonds and macadamias.

A few of Greg’s mates from Rotary prefabricate the gardens from sleepers bolted together and ready for planting once soil and compost are added. Kings Garden Centre manager, Simon, has been very supportive and regularly supplies broken bags, and other discounted material.

There are twelve schools in the project. I visited one of the most productive in the group, Mount Albert Primary School whose extensive gardens are a sight to be seen. The gardens do best where a teacher or two take the lead and help students learn how to garden. Students learn about fruit and vegetables they only see otherwise in supermarkets.

The gardens don’t take up much space. Pt Chevalier St Francis School is another school growing great food. We must now be sure that there is no backtracking - no prevarications, no obfuscations, no long delays. Richard Northey - please just get it done. We’re asking this at a time of major money shortages in Auckland Council, and at Government level. But, priorities are priorities, and we must insist that Leys stays near the top.

One of the first schools Greg Moyle set up was Ponsonby Primary, where his own children were pupils. We called in there to inspect and chatted with senior staff who were full of praise for Greg’s generous

John Elliott: Leys Institute’s future safe for now

Ponsonby News was delighted with the Waitemata Local Board’s categorical assurance that the Leys Building will be restored and returned to life as our iconic Ponsonby Library.

contribution to their school. (JOHN ELLIOTT)  PN The Friends of Leys group, of which I am member #200, will keep the pressure on.

We could also save $800,000 by not chopping down all the pines in the Western Springs forest. The Waitemata Board should do some urgent prioritising and leave the pines, at least for now. (JOHN ELLIOTT)  PN

The whole Custom team would like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone, in our local community and further afield, for supporting us over the last twelve years. After seventeen years in the industry, John Wills is stepping away from real estate sales, to instead dedicate more time to Custom Property Management. A new and exciting sales partnership has been formed between Keith & Sandy Dowdle and Ray White Damerell Group in Grey Lynn. This partnership will be utilising and maximising the very best of what both companies have offered clients in this very special neck of the woods. Our little local start-up business kicked off in 2008, while the GFC was in full swing. We were certainly welcomed into the marketplace with plenty of local support, and over the last twelve years we have seen many market environments come and go. As at the date of handover, we have successfully completed 1,078 sales, a huge achievement in this highly competitive city-fringe location. It has been a privilege to work with you and, once again: thank you. We love this area, as well as its entrepreneurial lets-get-on-with-it attitude. Have a wonderful summer and stay safe out there.

John Wills, Keith & Sandy Dowdle and the Custom team

Ponsonby has a lot going for it. Our heritage and culture makes us a very attractive destination, not only for our own residents, but for local and international visitors.

I talked with Ponsonby Business Association Chief Executive, Viv Rosenberg, about future developments. They are excited about an Auckland Transport initiative called ‘tactical urbanism’. I wrote a little about this in an October Ponsonby News article. I think it might be difficult to promote activities for kids and families without disrupting traffic too much on Ponsonby Road, but small innovative activities and hardware, temporary or permanent if very successful, could be good for Three Lamps and around Western Park.

Ponsonby has a great slogan... ‘Love your hood and they’ll love you back.’

In blunter terms, as I used to say when I first started the Ponsonby Community Newsletter in 1989, “Stay local, shop local, support your local businesses.” Current editor, Martin Leach echoes those sentiments. A review, under the Hazardous Substances Act is possible, but I was unable to speak to the new chief scientist, Professor Mike Bunce, who strangely has been seconded to the Health Ministry for three months. No one would tell me what that was all about. Now, with a new strong government in power, and a Green Party local MP, we must push Auckland Council hard to seek and adopt alternative weed control on our street berms parks and reserves. The status quo tells us alternatives are too expensive, but when cancers proliferate in our young people and begin to manifest sometimes years later, New Zealand could well be in the same position as the USA and many other countries where the makers of Roundup and other chemicals are being sued for billions of dollars. Much commentary centres on whether Americans can get rid of Trump, and polls suggest Biden has a good chance of winning. Biden was only about my fifth choice for Democratic nominee, but he will be a steady, if only one term, president. The senate race is very important too. Biden will still have his hands tied if the Democrats don’ t flip the senate, currently held 53-47 by the Republicans. There are half a dozen seats looking likely to flip, so Democrats might just be lucky. Keep a watch on Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, Maine as most likely, followed by Georgia, Montana, even Iowa and Kansas. But it is the make up of the Supreme Court that worries me most. Appointments are made for life, and by the president. Trump has seen three deaths in his first term and already appointed two real right wingers. He is trying to appoint a replacement for liberal icon I was telling Viv Rosenberg a little story to illustrate this support. She suggested I tell it here. When my son was about 12 he ordered the next Harry Potter book from Novel, up the road from home on Jervois Road. The day before the release, Novel owner Andrew Maben phoned us to say he could not match the ‘loss leader’ price being offered by the chain bookstores, and he would understand if we cancelled. We said no, we want to support our small local shops and Finn’s order would stand. Andrew is still there at Novel, 15 years later. It’s an old story, but it’s still relevant today.

If we look out for each other, our community will survive, thrive and grow.

Let’s do this. (JOHN ELLIOTT)  PN

John Elliott: Glyphosate - The time to ban it is now

I recently spoke with the Environmental Protection Authority in Wellington about a review of the poisonous glyphosate, present in popular herbicide, Roundup.

www.facebook.com/iloveponsonbynz Remember, German pharmaceutical firm Bayer, bought Monsanto, maker of glyphosate products for 62 billion dollars - for cash!

Ponsonby News will continue to call for the banishment of glyphosates until it happens. This is not a recent whim. There has been consistent pressure to ban it for years, well before I entered the fray, but as a student in the late 1950s I worked for a helicopter spraying gorse and willows with 2,4,D and 2,4,5,T - the dreaded ingredient of agent orange in Vietnam. I have suffered some non-specific illnesses which the famous Dr Matt Tizard said were almost certainly herbicide poisons.

It’s 60 years since Rachel Carson’s famous book Silent Spring, led

John Elliott: The Supreme Court of the USA — Worries

I know we can only handle one election at a time, but the Presidential election looms in the USA.

to the banning of DDT. How long must we wait? (JOHN ELLIOTT)  PN Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died aged 87 just recently. If confirmed, and Trump has the senate majority to push it through, Amy Coney Barrett would make the court 6-3 - stacked by conservatives.

The Supreme Court has major powers over issues like abortion, gay marriage, immigration, women’s issues, voting rights and conditions. One fear is that a conservative court could overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade decision which granted women abortion rights.

A democratic senate is a strong handbrake on a Republican President,

but let’s hope Biden gets in and the senate flips to Democrat. The US Presidential election is on 3 November, (4 November New Zealand time), but the final result might take days, even weeks, especially if Trump refuses to go if beaten. Third world drama in a first world country. (JOHN ELLIOTT)  PN

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