This week on City Counselling, Oscar Perress talks to Cr Richard Hills, the Councillor for the North Shore Ward + the chair of the environment and climate change committee. Together they talked about the restructure of council and his roles in response to Covid 19, Waste management and Shovel ready infrastructure. A huge thank you to the team at Auckland council, namely Conor Lavery and Richard Hills, and to Louis Laws for all his technical support.
Although the crisis of Covid-19 is front and centre for Tāmaki Makaurau, we are also in the midst of another crisis in the form of a water shortage. This week on City Counselling, Lillian Hanly spoke to Councillor Richard Hills about what this means as well as the resumption of recycling of Tāmaki Makaurau.
Continuing last week’s talk with Councillor Richard Hills, Lillian rounded out the conversation with a brief discussion of active transport and its short and long term potential for transforming Tāmaki Makaurau. You can catch the rest of that conversation, where they discussed recycling and our very real water crisis, here:
Jemima speaks with National Party MP and Spokesperson for Health Dr Shane Reti about the government's response to the new Covid-19 outbreak.
The government has announced an extension to the wage subsidy scheme. Jemima talked to Barnaby Locke, an Associate at Dundas Street Employment Lawyers, about what impact the wage subsidy has on employment obligations in law.
Finally, Jemima looks into how Auckland city businesses have been impacted by the second lockdown. She speaks with Heart of the City Chief Executive Viv Beck about what support city businesses to keep going during the global pandemic crisis.
Bronwyn spoke to Shane Henderson around the theme of 'transport'. They spoke about e-scooters, free hop cards and an inner-city congestion toll. Councillor Henderson also showed his support for Bike Auckland's “Liberate the Lane” Harbour Bridge event happening Sunday May 30th. You can hear a previous interview with Bike Auckland about the event here.
Ilena had her regular catch up with Shane Henderson, who this week talked about how water restrictions in Auckland will ease from tomorrow. Auckland has been under varying forms of restriction since May last year after a long period of drought, but recent rainfall events have had a positive impact on Auckland’s water stores.
Shane also talked about the new bipartisan Labour and National announcement which aims to make it easier to build houses and intensify close to city centres.
Ilena caught up with Pippa Coom about Council's recommendations for the Auckland Light Rail team which Cabinet will consider later this year. They talked about what the options are on the table for light rail, how it differs from heavy rail (such as the city rail link being built in Auckland CBD), and the need for rapid transport options in Auckland.
They also briefly spoke about Auckland Libraries’ and Council’s response to a petition asking for a click and collect system to be put in place. Since the interview, it has indeed been announced that Auckland libraries will be operating a click and collect service from November 2nd.
New Covid-19 announcements and rule updates have come thick and fast throughout the Delta outbreak period, leaving many Auckland businesses wanting answers. News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston speaks to Hospitality New Zealand Auckland representative Jamie Freeman and Heart of the City, Auckland CBD’s business association, Chief Executive Viv Beck about how some of the government's latest directives have impacted the retail and hospitality sectors. They discuss Monday's announcement that in principle Auckland will move to Alert Level 3 Step 2 on Tuesday 9 November at 11:59pm, the new Covid-19 Protection Framework or traffic light system, and the call for hospitality businesses to expand their outside seating areas to public footpaths.
Today on my regular catch up with Auckland Councillor Pippa Coom we discussed the Women4Climate Mentorship Programme that is coming to Tāmaki Makaurau this year.
The programme taking place in several C40 cities globally aims to contribute to the emergence of the next generation of climate leaders by sharing knowledge and experience.
Jessica Hopkins spoke to Pippa about who is eligible, and clarified the programmes' inclusion of non-binary and gender queer people.
In Tāmaki Makaurau 500 – 1000 bikes are reported stolen each year. However, it is estimated that the actual number is between 2500 – 5000. 7% of people who have a bike stolen don't replace it and stop riding altogether, and bike theft becomes a financial barrier to choosing to bike.
Bike Auckland is an advocacy group who are working to create a better city for people on bikes. They are wanting to reduce barriers that stop people riding bikes, so people can keep using their bikes – for the planet, for climate change, for safe live-able cities and for mental and physical health.
Bike Auckland have recently partnered with Project 529 to tackle bike theft with the launch of a new bike registration and recovery system called 529 Garage. This week on the Wire, Frances caught up with Gabriel Gati who is on the leadership team with Bike Auckland and spoke about bike theft in the city and what this initiative of 529 Garage might do to reduce it.
If you are interested in getting your bike registered with 529 you can send an email to 529@bikeauckland.org.nz, visit www.529garage.co.nz or find their app by searching 529 Garage.
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