Dogs and their people at Mission Bay in winter. Photo / Alex Burton
This is a transcript of Simon Wilson’s weekly newsletter Love this City – exploring the ideas and events, the reality and the potential of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Dogs on the beaches, dogs in the parks? It’s hard to think of a topic harder to get a social consensus on, but Auckland Council is trying. To date, not with much success.
Its proposed revisions to the rules for on-leash and off-leash dog-walking have provoked a public outcry everywhere from the beach communities in the far north of the city to the Hūnua Ranges in the south.
Affected beaches and reserves include Shakespear Regional Park, Pākiri, Tāwharanui, Ambury Farm Park and Muriwai, while urban parks like Madills Farm in Kohimarama (which I’ve covered previously) and Monte Cecilia Park in Royal Oak are also impacted, along with the Botanic Gardens in Manurewa.
In some areas, the proposal is for dogs to remain leashed; in others, the council proposes to ban them altogether.
The council also has a range of other plans. It wants to make the rules simpler, limit the number of dogs a professional walker can have at any one time, tighten the rules for multiple dog ownership and make it clear menacing dogs must be neutered.
There were 5207 public submissions on the proposals, from individuals and organisations. Most supported the plan to make the rules easier to understand. But of the 17 locations listed in a June report by council officials, there wasn’t a single one where a majority of submitters agreed with the plan to restrict access.
The northernmost beaches, where dog bans are proposed, saw the strongest opposition. “Free running for dogs!” might well be the rallying cry at Long Bay (70% opposed to council plans v 26% in favour), Forestry Beach at Te Ārai (76% v 18%) and Pākiri (81% v 15%).
As Alister Wright from the group Love Te Ārai says, “Local residents value this stretch of beach as one of the few remaining expansive areas where they can exercise their dogs, and they voiced this opinion clearly.”
These northernmost beaches are not as isolated as they once were: the local populations are growing fast. But if dogs can’t run free on such big, wide expanses, where can they?
In some other locations, though, the community was more evenly split. In Muriwai, 47% were opposed to the council plan, with 46% in favour. In Wenderholm, it was 44% to 42%.
Meanwhile, at Monte Cecilia Park, the Puketāpapa Local Board called for submissions on a plan to remove an off-leash area and make the whole park on-leash.
Monte Cecilia is a gorgeous urban park built on a hill, with sweeping grass fields and a sprawling forest of mature trees and new growth, stretching from the Pah Homestead down towards Mt Albert Rd and Pah Rd.
The board received more than 800 submissions, with well over 90% from people wanting to keep the off-leash area. Council officials and the animal management unit are not concerned about the park. But the local board, dominated by Communities and Residents (C&R) members, voted to remove the off-leash area in April.
There are many conflicting issues at stake. Dogs need to run. Dirty playing fields can breed tetanus and other diseases. Dog bans on beaches are necessary because owners don’t keep them on the leash anyway. Did you know that dogs are not allowed on most sports fields? In the bush reserves, native birds are at risk.
Also, fur babies or unpredictable animals? Many people feel unsafe around dogs running free. Most dog owners think the problem is someone else’s dog.
Also, when the people speak clearly, through the democratic submissions process, shouldn’t they be listened to? Should the whole council be able to override a local board on an issue like this?
In many cities overseas, off-leash areas are fenced off. Is that an acceptable option? How or why would you fence off a beach? Is fencing even feasible, given the severe constraints council spending now operates under?
For Steve O’Shaughnessy, who lives near Monte Cecilia Park, the issue is now accountability. “A local board can seemingly do anything it likes within the guidelines,” he told me, “and there is no one that citizens can reach out to, to challenge a decision. I’ve asked councillors and they have shrugged their shoulders (well, the C&R ones) and the mayor or his staff have ignored my email altogether.”
The rules for dogs are scheduled to come before the whole council this week – in good time ahead of the election in October – although this may not include local board decisions. Stand by for more.
Question: If the key to managing traffic congestion is to get unnecessary vehicles off the roads, what’s the single biggest thing we could do to achieve that?
Hint: It’s not a congestion tax, although that would help. Building more cycleways would also help, but that’s not it either.
Answer: It’s to disincentivise driving. One of the main reasons many people drive to work is that they have somewhere cheap or “free” to park.
Few companies have been keen to reduce staff car parking, and few staff have been keen on the idea either. But now a self-described “fintech maverick” outfit called Extraordinary has come up with a way to make a difference where it matters: by cutting the cost of travel on public transport.
Extraordinary has taken advantage of a recent change to fringe-benefit tax regulations to create a software platform that allows people to pay for the bus, train or ferry from their pre-tax income, using a HOP card or a dedicated Extraordinary Card.
This allows your employer to provide a travel allowance without having to pay fringe-benefit tax, and it reduces your taxable income, which means you save by paying less tax.
The company has pinned its hopes on research showing 21% of car commuters say they would consider switching to public transport if there were a tax-free benefit to doing it. That rises to 40% among younger workers. And 19% of those who work from home say they’d be in the office more if they got a public transport allowance.
Good for the planet, good for business, good for you. That’s the way.
Mayor Wayne Brown likes it too. He gave the scheme a ringing endorsement at a publicity event last Friday.
Bike across the bridge? Auckland Transport is now letting you do it, but not at all in the way cyclists have been hoping.
AT has equipped 15 of its double-decker buses with an internal bike rack, and from next month they will be in action on the Northern Express route.
“Allowing bikes on the NX1 service gives cyclists a way to cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge, providing a more connected and accessible network,” says AT’s head of public transport services planning and development, Pete Moth, as valiantly as he can.
The AT Mobile app will identify whether approaching buses have racks, and the buses will have a circular green icon on the front and side.
I guess it’s good news. But it’s not that good. The racks can fit only two bikes. The buses will comprise only a third of the fleet in use on the NX1 service, which runs every three to 15 minutes, depending on the time of day.
Those numbers mean many cyclists might have to wait a while for a bus with an available rack.
Every little bit helps? This is a year-long trial. “Ultimately, our aim is to offer a consistent service on all Rapid Transit Services,” says Moth. “By allowing passengers to take their bikes on the NX1 service, this is a first step towards bikes being allowed on all of our Rapid Transit bus services, as they can be on trains.”
You know what? That’s great, but just do it. AT already knows that reliability and efficiency are keys to improving public transport use, so why not roll it out for all the double-deckers now? To make sense of the “trial”, the service should be as reliable and efficient as possible from the get-go.
And the larger question: will it ever be possible to ride over the bridge? That’s not up to AT. The NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi controls the bridge, and the Government has no plans to add cycling ahead of its grand scheme to build a whole new crossing.
Matariki events are flooding the city this weekend, from the big concerts to a whole lot of beautiful art shows, with moments to stand in awe and many more where the big idea is to get involved: making things, singing, cooking and eating, getting on the water, trying new experiences, savouring old favourites and, of course, one of them is learning how to make a kite and fly it.
Matariki ki te Moana, which offered the chance to paddle a double-hulled canoe, has been cancelled due to the weather, but the council has a big programme of other events. The Herald will carry more information and coverage too.
Busy venues include Lake House Arts in Takapuna, Silo Park in Wynyard Quarter, the Stardome in Cornwall Park, Ihumātao, Queen St and Karangahape Rd.
“At the heart of the festival’s manaakitanga,” says the council, “is knowledge”. The focus this year is “the cultural, environmental and spiritual significance of wai [water]”.
A few highlights
Ngā Whetū o Te Tau Hou and Ngā Whetū o Takurua: The Stars of the New Year and the Stars of Winter, late afternoons and evenings at the Stardome Observatory and Planetarium.
Maoriland Film Festival, Lake House Arts, Takapuna – Friday, June 27, 7pm.
Puketāpapa Manu Aute Kite Day: Kite flying from the top of the 105,000-year-old volcano Puketāpapa (Mt Roskill) – Sunday, July 6, 11am-3pm.
Matariki ki te Manawa: Matariki at the heart, a 2km trail of light installations throughout the central city that tell stories of the area from long ago. There’s a crochet-crafted wharenui (meeting house), a giant children’s book that takes two children to turn the pages, neon manu (birds) with electric plumage perched in trees, and so many more of the illuminated artworks the council has installed in recent years. Until July 13.
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Luxon has now headed onward to Europe.