Keep us in the loop

A family is disappointed the council has cut them out of decisions to demolish their forebear's Newmarket homestead, writes Rebecca Blithe.
Symon Edgerley remembers looking at photos of his great-great-grandfather, John Edgerley, a botanist and explorer from England who settled in Newmarket in 1843.
"I've had family grow up in homesteads in that area," he says of the street where his paternal grandfather built homes and raised his family - and which is now named Edgerley Ave.
"Two of Auckland's first Pakeha were born there - John's two sons. About eight years ago there was a stand in the Auckland Museum about John."
But as the area is assessed and permission given to demolish one of the houses, Mr Edgerley and relatives say they feel shut out of council processes. They are deeply concerned about the assessment and preservation of their ancestor's homesteads.
"It all seems to happen in a very closed manner. I would like the public to be notified. People need to be made aware.
"Obviously, I don't want it demolished but, if it is, there needs to be proper assessments for artefacts. It needs to be identified to record its posterity."
A relative of Mr Edgerley, Warwick Hughes, has set up a website detailing the history of his family and their homes. Mr Hughes believes numbers 14 and 11 Edgerley Ave were built in the 1840s and have since been extended.
He was alerted to the council's plans by a resident of nearby Gillies Ave, who is also concerned about the fate of old homes in the area.
"I have only been aware of these issues for a few months after being contacted. While investigating for myself after I found council was conducting a heritage assessment, I could not find any public material, so I faxed my views to them," says Mr Hughes, who now lives in Canberra, Australia.
He believes the council should advise the public what it is assessing, invite contributions and show what information it has. "It is puzzling to me that the council area assessment is not made public. Open and transparent is too often just a slogan. [It's] the secrecy of the process and lack of public information on council's website."
Mr Edgerley has also written to the council to express his concerns. "For me, that's the biggest disappointment. I wrote a letter pleading with [council]. I encouraged them to study the history. I never heard anything back.
"We Aucklanders have seen enough of our heritage lost. I'd like to think we're not so gung-ho about it all. But perhaps not."
Council heritage manager Noel Reardon says the issue highlights long-term difficulties the council faces in protecting Auckland's built heritage.
"That is why the mayor has directed that the rules relating to our built heritage be toughened up through the spatial and district plans. The information provided by Warwick Hughes is being considered as part of the process."
Permission for the demolition of 11 Edgerley Ave makes protection of the site more difficult, he says.
While the assessment process is not publicly notified, the plan change process is. Publicly notifying an assessment could have a trigger affect on people wanting to demolish properties.
"There are implications of making the assessment process public prior to making decision on any potential protection mechanisms, such as a plan change."
In most instances, resource consent for demolition is not required if the place isn't within the district plan heritage schedule.
"The public notification of an assessment may also affect property values or a neighbour may use the process to delay or stall a proposal; this would be inappropriate if the heritage values of a place were not found to be significant."
In the case of Edgerley Ave, the heritage assessment is not complete and Mr Reardon encourages any further information regarding the area to be sent in.
The fine print
Several advertisements from as far back as 2007 detail blocks of land incorporating the Edgerley Ave area for sale as "development opportunities". At present no resource consent applications are lodged for development in the area.