Kāinga Ora Update - Bolton Street / Marlowe Road - 17/03

Benji from Blockhouse Bay

Good morning whānau, for those that don’t know Kāinga Ora are planning a new development in Blockhouse Bay getting rid of what was Pensioner Housing gifted by Mr Thompson. Yesterday I spent some hours reviewing the Council Archives in regards to the gifting of land from Roy Thompson to Auckland Council. As you can see highlighted in the agreement documents (bullet point 3.) "The council shall hold the land for pensioner housing as a memorial to the late wife and parents of the donor". As you can also see highlighted in the blue transaction document is "Price: Gift, Purpose for which being acquired: Pensioner Housing".

Additionally the Auckland Star on the 12th of May 1973 published the article attached.

Here is a snippet from it and Mr Thompson's or 'Darby's' words himself - "Sixty-five-year-old Mr. Roy Thompson, or "Darby" as he is known to his friends, owns four acres of residential land at Avondale, has eight cats, a horse and lives in a house which is not connected to the power and has most of the windows broken. But last week he put on a white shirt and went into the city to have afternoon tea and cakes with city councillors. The reason? He had just donated 1¼ acres of his land to the council for pensioner housing. "It was in memory of my late wife and family." said Mr Thompson….

Mr Thompson wanted to do something for the elderly people, who he says have not been as fortunate as himself. ”I am determined to do something good before I go. So last week after months of negotiating, the council and Mr Thompson finally signed the documents necessary."

Kāinga Ora must honour 'Darby'. They have made it abundantly clear there is no plans for pensioner housing in their proposal. We need them to stop and re-plan this development. I am still awaiting information from them as to the next steps for engagement.

Here is a link to a petition with more information - chng.it...