Local elections 2019: The battle for the Shore

Keeping the environment beautiful is high on the priority list for North Shore voters. Photo / Ted Baghurst

On a recent sunny Saturday, the Potters Park playground in Takapuna was busy with kids running, climbing and swinging, their parents watching, helping, chatting over their coffees. Kids were running around at nearby Hurstmere Green, too, although the pace of life there was more sedate: after a morning doing the shops, Hurstmere Green in the spring sunshine is a lovely place to take the weight off.

As for Hurstmere Rd, the main shopping street, it was thick with cars, the footpaths were busy, everyone was out.

Those Saturday crowds are at the heart of one of the most contentious debates in the North Shore ward these past few years: how to make the town centre better able to serve the retail, recreational and transport needs of a growing community.

The council is replacing the Anzac St car park, right by Potters Park, with a "town square" and some commercially focused buildings. As for Hurstmere Rd itself, it's so clogged with cars you'd think it too was a car park, but there are plans to make it a better street to walk and shop in.

In surveys, it seems most locals support the changes, as do both ward councillors and most Devonport-Takapuna local board members, including those on Team George Wood.

But the opposition, including Heart of the Shore members of the local board, has been vigorous and sometimes not pretty: councillors Chris Darby and Richard Hills have received death threats. That issue blew up at a candidates' meeting in Devonport last week, when Hills complained about the threats.

Candidates for the North Shore ward, from left: Richard Hills, Danielle Grant, Chris Darby and Grant Gillon, at a public meeting in Beach Haven this week. Photo / Dean Purcell

Heart of the Shore's Jan O'Connor responded that she'd removed one of them from a Facebook page as soon as she was aware of it, only for someone in the crowd to show the meeting his phone, with the threat still there.

The page in question belongs to Save the Takapuna Carpark and the offending material has since been removed.

Darby and Hills' principal opponents, Grant Gillon and Danielle Grant of More for the Shore, say they were aware of that graphic but they definitely do not endorse death threats.

Darby calls it all "political stuff and nonsense" and says it would be good if councillors and local board members were given "independent competency assessments" every year.

This is a real fight: Darby and Hills vs Gillon and Grant (a fifth candidate, Anthony Bunting, has barely been sighted). And on social media, rumours and stories swirl. A man at another local meeting this week told the Herald the council intends to close down Takapuna's Sunday market.

North Shore councillor Richard Hills at a meeting in Beach Haven this week. Photo / Dean Purcell

It's hard to know why anyone would think the council might close a popular market, but the mere existence of the rumour points to one of the biggest issues it faces: public confidence.

Gillon told the Herald that people "don't mind change", but he thinks the council doesn't understand that "you've got to take people with you".

Voters in the ward are annoyed, he added: the targeted rates for water and the environment are not being spent proportionately, and nor are general rates. He said Mayor Phil Goff has put the focus for development on the south and west of the city, and "we're missing out".

Hills and Darby both deny North Shore is missing out. More ferry sailings and double decker buses are planned, along with a new Takapuna bus station and upgrades to Bayswater and Northcote ferry terminals.

The ward has been allocated 51 per cent of funding to fight kauri dieback, under the environment targeted rate. Parks like Birkenhead War Memorial Park are being made over. Council has spent $33 million on a new pumping station on Barrys Point Rd and will spend $47 million to upgrade Lake Rd.

Their list is longer. But one way or another, Gillon and Grant dispute most of the items on it. Auckland Transport is delaying projects; credit for progress should go to the local boards, not the councillors, and so on.

North Shore ward candidate Danielle Grant at a public meeting in Beach Haven this week. Photo / Dean Purcell

Hills also says it's hard to see how the Shore is losing out to the south and west.

"We have four good, modern pool complexes in the area. In west Auckland, they have one. We have three times the number of playgrounds they have in south Auckland, and they've got 25 per cent of all the children in the entire country."

Gillon and Grant say officials and councillors alike ignore the views of people on the Shore. Darby and Hills say that isn't true: consultation is usually extensive but eventually decisions are made.

Gillon uses the word "stripped" a lot. "In Takapuna," he said at a meeting in Beach Haven this week, "Panuku is selling parks and open space, stripping our assets, to build upmarket housing."

Hills says that's not true either. "There have been no parks or reserves sold on the Shore in the whole nine years of the Auckland Council. In fact we have only purchased land."

There are two local boards in the ward: Devonport-Takapuna, east of the motorway, and Kaipātiki to the west. The hot proposal in Kaipātiki right now is a coastal walk to link Tui Park with Shepherds Park, along the northeast coastline.

Public turnout in Beach Haven to listen to Auckland Council candidates for the North Shore ward. Photo / Dean Purcell

Council officials analysed five options and told the board its preferred project, with a big boardwalk over water, was too expensive. The officials recommended upgrading existing tracks between the parks instead. But the board decided to put all five proposals out for public consultation.

Chair John Gillon, son of Grant and leader of the Shore Action ticket, says "the walkway will be fantastic" and the existing paths will be upgraded anyway. His sister Paula, also on the board, says the funding is fine. "This is for future generations."

Board member Ann Hartley, head of the Kaipātiki Voice ticket, says her group supports the officials' advice.

As for the candidates for council, on both sides they've advised caution. Danielle Grant says she supports the consultation but believes they should upgrade the existing tracks. Darby says, "I'm very fond of coastal access but I can identify a folly when I see one."

Everyone readily agrees on one thing. Climate change, clean water, the health of the bush, the beauty of the place: they're high on the priority list. Transport is still the biggest issue on the Shore but the environment, suddenly, is pushing it hard.

The next harbour crossing

Nothing sharpens local minds on the Shore more than the question of the next harbour crossing. Councillor Chris Darby says decisions should be made in the context of fighting climate change.

Council needs "an unrelenting focus and faster delivery of great public transport", he says, including light rail in tunnels to the Shore. "I'm saying let's ride it in 2030."

Councillor Richard Hills agrees. And, like Darby, he stresses the value of the still-proposed cycling and walking pathway over the bridge, connecting Westhaven to Takapuna.

Grant Gillon and Danielle Grant say they agree about giving priority to public transport in the ward. "Public transport solutions and reducing congestion are what people tell us matters most to them," they said in a joint statement.

But they also say, "We have always supported an additional harbour crossing with a tunnel, starting with roading to accommodate buses and heavy freight and future-proofed for rail."

The NZ Transport Agency will report soon on new crossing options.

None of the candidates supports John Tamihere's proposal for a new bridge or thinks it adds much to the debate. Darby says it's a 1950s idea that reinforces a dependence on cars.

The original version of this article incorrectly stated that the Facebook page containing the death threats against councillors belonged to Community Action Network (CAN). The Herald accepts that no attempt was made to verify the claim with CAN or its Facebook page and that the threats referred to in the article were not made by anyone associated with CAN.

The series

Over these two weeks the Herald is reporting on six wards where the contest is the especially fierce.

Monday Sep 23: Whau

Wednesday Sep 25: North Shore

Friday Sep 27: Maungakiekie-Tāmaki

Monday Sep 30: Waitematā-Gulf

Wednesday Oct 2: Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa

Friday Oct 4: Waitākere

NORTH SHORE

Before the Super City was established in 2010, North Shore was its own city. Now it's the most densely residential part of Auckland, outside of the city centre. Hilly and lushly gardened, it's bound to the east by some of Auckland's best beach suburbs, from Castor Bay down to Cheltenham and Devonport. Westwards as far as Beach Haven the ward is heavily endowed with native bush, while Glenfield and the industrial and big-box retail Wairau Valley sit at its heart. Takapuna is the metropolitan centre, with Birkenhead, Glenfield, Northcote, Sunnynook, Devonport and Milford all designated "town centres".

Population: 142,500

Ethnicity: European 69%, Asian 24%, Māori 7%, Pasifika 4%

Median age: 36.8 years

Median household income: $81,300

Incumbent city councillors: Chris Darby, Richard Hills

Key issues

•Traffic congestion

•Environment

•Ferry services

Ward candidates

Anthony Bunting (Independent), Chris Darby (Taking the Shore Forward), Grant Gillon (More for the Shore), Danielle Grant (More for the Shore), Richard Hills (A Positive Voice for the Shore)

Devonport-Takapuna local board candidates

Aidan Bennett (A Fresh Approach), Mary-Anne Benson-Cooper (Independent), Kevin Brett (The Trump New Zealand Party), Gavin Busch (Team George Wood), Paul Cornish (Keep Our Open Spaces), Trish Deans (Heart of the Shore), Donald Horsburgh (Independent), Ruth Jackson (Heart of the Shore), Jenn McKenzie (Team George Wood), Jan O'Connor (Heart of the Shore), Iain Rea (Heart of the Shore), Ian Revell (Team George Wood), Dorothea Akenese Scanlan (The Trump New Zealand Party), Michael Sheehy (Team George Wood), Toni van Tonder (A Fresh Approach), Danny Watson (A Fresh Approach), George Wood (Team George Wood), John Wood (Future Focus).

Kaipātiki local board candidates

Trevor Courtier (Independent), MurreyDearlove, John Gillon (Shore Action), Paula Gillon (Shore Action), Danielle Grant (Shore Action), Ann Hartley (Kaipātiki Voice), Louis Hartley (Kaipātiki Voice), Jesse Jensen (Independent), Melanie Kenrick (Shore Action), Shannon Leilua (Kaipātiki Voice), Cindy Schmidt (Kaipātiki Voice), Andrew Shaw (Kaipātiki Voice), Anne-Elise Smithson (Shore Action), Adrian Tyler (Shore Action), Frances Waaka (Kaipātiki Voice).