Brown, Swarbrick agree safety fixes
Night-time food trucks such as The White Lady are among the quick wins Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and Auckland Central MP Chle Swarbrick want to see in the central city.
After walking to work together via Karangahape Rd for an hour of talks yesterday, the two politicians agreed to work together on immediate steps to improve safety and vibrancy in Auckland’s city centre.
Brown agreed to a number of immediate “low-hanging fruit” suggestions by the Green MP, including support for Ma¯ori Wardens with a base at Myers Park and help with Heart of the City and City Mission’s Street Guardians programme.
Other plans are a public toilet strategy and resourcing, a onestop, single-point contact for people experiencing or concerned about homeless people, and providing public space and removing licensing barriers for people to set up food trucks at night.
Last month, the central city’s popular late-night takeaway, The White Lady, was granted a 12-month reprieve to continue operating after a furore when the council reduced its licence to six weeks following complaints from a nearby business.
Swarbrick also pressed Brown to get on with implementing the City Centre Masterplan and density done well, to maintain and enhance investment in public transport, cycleways and pedestrianisation and do more to address climate change.
Brown said Auckland Council was already investing significantly in climate-change mitigation and would need support from central government on further adaptation.
The mayor also thanked Swarbrick for her strong support for his initiative to return land currently being used by Ports of Auckland for used-car imports to public use.
They agreed the port land should remain in public ownership in perpetuity with a clear plan and timeline to move it to its highest and best use based on environmental, social, cultural and economic measures.
On financial matters, Brown emphasised that both central and local government had to trim unnecessary spending to reduce the pressure on households.
Brown also met Act leader and Epsom MP David Seymour yesterday where they discussed what the mayor called the “economic and fiscal storm Aucklanders are sailing towards” made worse by this week’s bad news on inflation and interest rates.
Brown said he had ordered Auckland Council and its councilcontrolled organisations (CCOs) and other entities to review all head office overheads and return savings to Auckland households.
Seymour briefed Brown on his deputy Brooke van Velden’s Housing Infrastructure (GSTsharing) Bill, which would encourage local councils to invest in infrastructure, and let more homes be built through a GSTsharing scheme that would transfer 50 per cent of the GST revenue of a new house to the council that issued the consent.