LOCAL BODY ELECTIONS - IMPORTANT INFORMATION
WE NEED NEW COUNCILLORS WHO WILL ACT IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THEIR COMMUNITY
Chris Darby and Richard Hills, Councillors for the North Shore ward, have repeatedly failed to act in the best interests of their community over the last 3 years.
In July, Devonport-Takapuna Local Board passed a vote of No Confidence in Chris Darby and Richard Hills on the Takapuna Central Car Park issue. This is serious and rarely happens.
● Darby, supported by Hills, has ardently supported the sale and redevelopment of the Takapuna Central Carpark since 2016 when he moved a Council resolution to sell the car park (supported by George Wood) BEFORE any consultation had occurred on what should happen to the site.
○ Takapuna will be left with a small town square
○ No convenient parking close to Hurstmere Rd.
○ A 400m walk from the new carpark to Hurstmere Green.
○ The local board was effectively sidelined during the process.
● Darby has consistently supported Panuku and its token consultation against the views of the local Board, as has Hills.
● In 2016, Darby also voted for adopting a long term budget which left out:
$54 million allocated towards the Lake Rd upgrade ($47m put back in after local board lobbying)
Nearly $16 million in funding for upgrades to the Bayswater and Northcote Ferry Terminals
A $3.5 million upgrade to the Takapuna Bus Station
● Darby also supported the reduction in budget to the libraries and a reduction in Council involvement in social housing.
● By contrast, Darby has supported the extravagant fit out of new headquarters for ATEED and upgrade of the old headquarters ($4 million). Hills has supported Business Class travel for Council staff.
And
● Darby’s tenure as Chair of the Planning Committee has been accompanied by increasing numbers of planning consents for developments that grossly exceed the Unitary Plan rules for height and coverage, which are increasingly meaningless.
Neither Darby nor Hills have been the advocates for the North Shore that we need. We do not believe they should continue to represent us.
We need new councillors and consider that Grant Gillon and Danielle Grant are worthy of support as they have a well-established and a proven track record of being highly responsive to local concerns.
Make sure you vote carefully in the election.
[Posted by Takapuna 2040 Inc (formerly Auckland 2040 who fought the Council on the Unitary Plan), a community organisation, not affiliated with any political organisation.]
Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
-
57.1% Human-centred experience and communication
-
14.3% Critical thinking
-
24.8% Resilience and adaptability
-
3.8% Other - I will share below!
Brain Teaser of the Day 🧠✨ Can You Solve It? 🤔💬
Make a hearty dish. Take just half a minute. Add four parts of kestrel. Then just add one. What have you made?
(Trev from Silverdale kindly provided this head-scratcher ... thanks, Trev!)
Do you think you know the answer? Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm on the day!
Want to stop seeing these in your newsfeed? No worries! Simply head here and click once on the Following button.
Business on Toast
Devonport Rotary Club and Devonport Business Association
Invite you to another
Business on Toast
at
The Stone Oven
5 Clarence St, Devonport
With guest speaker
David Lomas
Documentary host, producer and journalist
The man who finds people, for people
BOOK EARLY AS NUMBERS LIMITED
Friday 20 March 2026
Breakfast from 7:00am
Coffee and tea available from 6:30am
The cost is $30 payable at the door by EFTPOS
Please RSVP by
Wednesday 18 March
to
devonportrotary11@gmail.com
Include 'Business on Toast' in the subject line
David Lomas is best known as the man who makes New Zealanders cry.
For the last 19 years he has fronted more than 160 episodes of his heart warming and heart-wrenching family reunion programmes known by various names - Missing Pieces, Family Secret, Lost & Found and David Lomas Investigates.
In April his new series David Lomas Breakthrough will screen on TV3.
David comes from a background in journalism, writing his first newspaper story 60 years ago as a 13 year old college student.
In a print journalism career lasting 18 years he worked on numerous papers including the Wanganui Chronicle, The Dominion, The Sunday Times, Fiji Sun, Auckland Star, Sunday Star and the Auckland Sun.
In 1988 David moved to television with TVNZ where he was involved in starting the Holmes programme (and was in the helicopter crash with Paul Holmes).
While David did some on-air work at TVNZ he was mainly involved in producing such programmes as 60 Minutes, Sunday and One News.
He has also worked for Radio NZ and was deputy editor of The Listener.
David has won more than 40 journalism and television awards including Journalist of the Year in both television and print.
For the last 20 years he has worked as a freelance producer/ director/ presenter. David has also made a number of one-off documentaries – most notably the top rating The Wahine Disaster and The Real Mr Asia.
Loading…
