By ANNE GIBSON
Marie Franklin, aged 80 and a grandmother of eight, walked down her garden path one spring morning, breathing in the scent of the new freesias. She paused to admire the roses beginning to bloom, then lifted the newspaper out of the letterbox.
There to her horror were plans for a mega-mall just down the road from the 1921 lemon and cream villa where she has lived for 45 years.
Under the flame tree planted as a cutting with her late husband, Franklin raised three children in the house. The Newmarket she remembers is a distant cry from today's fashion strip. She recalls "the railway people" who lived in the gully and back when Broadway had useful shops which sold items such as fish, vegetables and meat.
Some elderly folk might sigh at the newspaper article about the mall and mourn the fate of the neighbourhood.
Not Franklin.
She's a battler from way back. "About 17 years ago, we stopped two big developments," she says, recalling how she helped to thwart plans for the Twin Oaks high-rise apartment block nearby and a large commercial building on Remuera Rd.
Round Newmarket way, the softly spoken grandmother is known for her activism. She is no stranger to letter-writing campaigns, placard marches on city hall or court cases.
Franklin is joining residents around the area who this week mounted a campaign to stop Westfield's planned 11-level $450 million mall earmarked for the former Mercury Energy site.
Leaflet drops, action groups, marches down Broadway, protests to the Auckland City Council and Mayor Christine Fletcher - all this was discussed in the living rooms of Newmarket homes this week.
"Newmarket residents are once again revolting," wrote Newmarket resident Robin Bailey to Fletcher this week. Bailey lives in Middleton Rd, off Remuera Rd, close to where the mall will be built. Middleton Rd is one of the many streets on which the mall will have a high impact, as shown by the Westfield consultants' report lodged with the council.
Bailey held a meeting at his house on Wednesday with concerned residents. There it was decided to revive a lobbying group flushed with victory from its latest stoush.
The Newmarket Park Protection Society won the battle to turn the 5.8ha reserve into a recreational park. Dropping the "park" from its name, the Newmarket Protection Society has regrouped to battle the mall, says Bailey. "We propose to mount an anti-Britomart style campaign," he wrote to Fletcher.
As part of its strategy, the society will "enlist the support of established pressure groups," Bailey says, including the Society of Architects' urban issues group.
Residents' fears are numerous and include the freefall of their property values, gridlocked traffic, aesthetic threats and streets jammed with staff cars. They are petitioning the council to stop the development.
One resident's e-mail to Auckland City Council planning chiefs Karen Bell and John Duthie this week said: "Newmarket does not need a white elephant as proposed by Westfield. Nor do we want a streetscape devoid of people but full of cars with drivers irately waiting to get into an air-conditioned box the size of a football stadium."
Westfield NZ's boss, Grant Hirst, has previously defended the mall, saying it will be "magnificent." He says he was disappointed with last week's Weekend Herald article "Store wars loom over Broadway mega-mall," which he criticises for being "personal." He says he will be available to discuss the issues next week, on his return from a trip to Australia.
Newmarket mega-mall will cast a long shadow
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
Latest from Property
We're selling everything: Beach house comes with free Tesla as family quits NZ
Luxury home has an asking price of $2.449m.