[October 19, 2018]: On October 2 last year, Mt Albert Inc stepped into the online world with stories trying to fulfil a promise to deliver local news, information and backgrounders the Herald and Central Leader had long since abandoned.

It’s interesting to flick back to that opening week and look at a range of stories that had been told nowhere else – from the plan to create a farm centre at MAGS to the news that no school would be built on the Unitec land.

Then there was the opening assault on the owner of the burnt-out shell of the old medical centre, the final interview with Mt Albert’s first mayor, Frank Ryan, an introduction to the people behind the new Albert’s Post, the fascinating war-time story of Jeanette Amies – and a stack of backgrounders on everything from history and big issues to schools, doctors and politicians.

Many months went into gathering and writing much of that launch material – along with pictures to go with them – and learning the intricacies, limitations and frustrations of running a website.

Since then, Mt Albert Inc has published around 200 stories of interest and concern to this community, and all of them now sit in an archive rich in local – and national – revelation. In time, the most important of them all may be the commitment given by Jacinda Ardern that the Unitec housing development will be “gold standard”. Politicians always need reminding of their promises.

At the beginning, I laid out the site’s ambition and finished the column with this:” … it’s up to you whether you accept the responsibility as a citizen to stay well informed. We hope you’ll come along for the ride”.

The same column repeated a plea I had made many times, in one form or another, in the planning stages and since then: “Is there a co-editor (or two) with journalism experience out there? A WordPress wizard I can call on from time to time? Someone with the credentials to follow up an advertising lead?”

The response then was as deafening and disappointing as it is today and, after months of filing several stories a week and often daily, I’ve done my dash in this role as a community volunteer.

In that time (with a couple of breaks where traffic naturally came to a halt because there was nothing new to see), the site has registered around 150,000 page views and 130,000 unique visits, which I guess isn’t too bad for a budget outfit with no marketing backup, run by an old bloke in his retirement. (Certainly an advance from an earlier project: a long-running website to keep locals informed over the quite specific Asquith Ave Housing NZ development.)

I’ve had some help here and there, and it has always been appreciated. Thank you to those people, most of them old newspaper colleagues, and thank you, too, to the local board for providing the grant and giving oxygen to the concept of a hyperlocal news site.

But the lack of general support (and an eye condition which is causing me problems) means this phase of Mt Albert Inc’s brief life is over.

Hopefully there will be another phase; the reservoir of hundreds of thousands of words and an archive of 1000 or so pictures will sit there until a fresh face concerned at the decline in the coverage of local news and information – and the growing influence of social media – is ready to have a go. When that happens, I’ll be very happy to help on the technical side and perhaps pitch in as a part-time contributor.

Meanwhile, to those who came along for the ride, thank you for climbing on board. I’m sorry the journey was so short but hope you found it worthwhile.

• If you have a strong background in  journalism and are interested in volunteering to build on the first year of Mt Albert Inc, drop a line to [email protected]

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Mt Albert Grammar School has drawn a line in the sand over the aquatic centre – it wants it gone in as little as two years, putting huge pressure on Auckland Council to settle on a replacement site.

After years of concern over the pressures posed by a public pool in the school’s Alberton Ave grounds, MAGS has decided enough is enough.

In discussions with the council and the trust that administers the pool, the school is now making its position very clear: it wants the aquatic centre off its land in perhaps two years.

The firm stand comes as the council seeks a five-year lease renewal, which the school is not prepared to endorse.

The wrangle between the school, the council and the trust board that administers the complex is now reaching a head and a result is expected in the next two or three months.

MAGS, which owns the land through the Ministry of Education, is in a powerful position. It says it needs more space for classrooms and that cars moving to and from the popular pool pose major health and safety issues for its burgeoning roll.

The school favours a compromise that would allow it to retain the length pool, which could then become a part-community facility for school use and for “serious” swimmers.

Under that arrangement, the bulk of the complex – the “fun” dimension including the wave pool and slide which draw 65 per cent of the 300,000-plus visitors each year – would go.

The council apparently accepts the aquatic centre cannot continue in the long term in its present form. But it had been hoping to extend the lease for some years to allow a different site to be identified and a new pool built.

The school’s resolute new position puts the council on the spot. While it is committed to providing a pool in Albert-Eden, officers were no doubt working to their own deadline – five or six years away, perhaps.

Even starting now, with no land earmarked, it would surely take three years or longer to get the design, consents and finance (perhaps as much as $30m) in place and the build completed.

In the Albert-Eden area there are just two publicly-owned sites available:

• Chamberlain Park, where the local board is about to move ahead with its plan to cut the golf course in half and create a wider recreational area;
• The Mt Albert War Memorial Reserve where the option is to extend the community and leisure centre operated by the YMCA.

Chamberlain Park seems the logical choice as part of the major overhaul of the land and will probably be favoured. But whatever site is selected, there will be community concerns.

Everyone will want a new pool but no one will want it just down the road; the prospect of hundreds of extra cars a week on local streets like Wairere Ave, Asquith Ave and Linwood Ave will bring seriously raised voices.

Alberton Ave residents, meanwhile, will count their blessings. Three schools in their street mean traffic will always be heavy, but taking the pool visitors away will ease the headache.

The end of the road for the aquatic centre should not come as a surprise to anyone because the limited upgrade finished in 2015 to deal with major building leaks was only designed to last 10 years.

The school has been voicing its concern over the last year or two, but no one, least of all the council, imagined the wave pool and slide complex might have to be be shut by 2021 or 2022.

MAGS headmaster Patrick Drumm says the assumption has always been that the pool is “going, going, gone” as a public facility because the growth of the school roll and the safety issues meant it had outgrown its purpose.

In two years, MAGS will be the biggest school in the country with a roll heading towards 3300, probably reaching 3600 in 2023. It has almost phased out students from outside the zone, but the new farm centre and strong growth within the zone will continue to stoke the roll.

The pool complex carpark is within the grounds and “with 3100 kids moving around the school on the bell every hour, plus 300 staff coming and going and cars entering and exiting using the same entrance we are very concerned from a health and safety perspective whether it is viable at all really,” says the headmaster.

As well, the school needs the land for more classrooms to cope with a roll that has exploded since 2000 (when girls were admitted, two years after the pool was built) from fewer than 1400 pupils.

“It is chaos out there and the aquatic centre is not now fit for purpose,” he says.

Mr Drumm says everything is now coming to a head and he is critical of the ministry for its lack of planning in not providing suitable facilities for future growth.

The ministry took a denial stance to the projections that MAGS was going to reach the sort of numbers that had become a reality, and now a “crunch point” had been reached.

“The repercussions of that go well into the community. It’s not just about MAGS, the pool, traffic management, student movement – it’s all about quality really.

“We have been very frustrated that a school like MAGS, which is enjoying great success, hasn’t been on the radar or taken seriously by the ministry in terms of planning for growth.”

Mr Drumm says the time has been reached where the ministry needs to say, ‘well hang on a minute, the school is growing – one of the fastest growing in-zone schools in NZ and we can’t go through another pool renewal period and hope it will be all right’.”

He poses the question: “How long do you keep a facility like that rolling along with a heads-in-sand approach when we’re growing the school by another 100 or 150 kids a year?”

Mr Drumm says a decision will be reached in the next two or three months and the school was working on a timeline that was the shortest possible.

“Five years is ridiculous and we are looking to bring it back to a shorter time frame, perhaps two years,” he says. “That will send a really strong message that we don’t see it as even a medium term venture let along a long term one.”

So he would be surprised if the pool was still operating in three years the way it is now?

“Absolutely. I just cannot see how that can work and, in fact, it would be negligent of all the parties just to assume that it can.”

It might be possible to shift the parking out to Alberton Ave, or create a new entrance, but the carpark site was needed for future development in the short term.

The status quo “is just absolutely impossible”.

Earlier Mt Albert Inc stories:

Murky waters mask pool future

Big issues backgrounder on the pool

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Work begins next Monday to turn the top of Owairaka/Te Ahi-kā-a-Rakataura into a car-free zone and the plan is to introduce a new visitor car park and toilet block beside the main entrance, with an automated gate at the start of the loop road. The present car park on the western side of the football field will be grassed.

When the project is over, the road will be permanently closed to all private motor vehicles including motorbikes and scooters. The exception will be for people who have limited mobility and cannot walk to the tihi (summit); they or their drivers can phone a dedicated number to obtain an access code for the gate.

The work will take about two months to complete and the loop road will stay open to walkers, cyclists and vehicles during construction, with temporary closures when cattle stops are being removed.

The steps to ban cars follow similar moves at Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill in May this year, Takarunga/Mt Victoria and Pukewīwī/Puketāpapa/Mt Roskill in March this year, and Maungawhau/Mt Eden in January 2016.

Paul Majurey, chair of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority, says the change recognises that Ōwairaka/Te Ahi-kā-a-Rakataura is a site of immense cultural and historical significance.

“Ōwairaka/Te Ahi-kā-a-Rakataura was a significant pā settlement, home to well over 1000 people at the height of occupation,” he says. “Despite immense damage by quarrying, some important examples of early Māori life in Tāmaki Makaurau still exist there in the form of terraces, midden and pits shaped for dwellings, agriculture and defence.

“To Mana Whenua, the tihi of a maunga holds great spiritual and cultural significance and has always been a place to be treated with respect and reverence. Honouring these values alongside creating an enhanced experience for pedestrians is at the heart of the vehicle access changes.”

Making the loop road safer for walkers was also a consideration because pedestrians, cyclists and cars all share one narrow path..

Mr Majurey says the authority has had consistent feedback that the maunga are “vastly more peaceful and safer places to be without cars driving up and over them. People are really connecting with the preservation of these taonga.”

Bruce Morris

People ahead of cars the way of the future on the mountain

• More information about the Tūpuna Maunga Authority, including the Tūpuna Maunga Integrated Management Plan, click here

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Putting aside the ongoing traffic issues, the starkness of the streetscape has drawn most of the local criticism since the upgrade was “opened” in May.

The pocket park on the north-eastern corner of the main intersection has been savaged as cold and soulless, and the wide open footpaths as concrete wasteland.

But all that is about to change.

The Albert Eden Local Board expected pleasant finishing touches as a matter of course to make the streetscape more appealing.

But Auckland Transport didn’t see it as part of the job – and the board and the council have now taken up the challenge of “prettying” things up, using funds left over from the upgrade project.

Work will start soon on a programme to introduce colour to the village strip and it should be over by the end of October.

The plan (as shown in the image here provided by the council):

Pocket park area: the garden bed beneath the lovely ash tree (at present in scoria rocks of varying sizes) will be planted with Libertia pereginans and Coprosma repens. A council expert says “Coprosma brings a striking glossy green, and the Libertia brings a strong orange colour”.

As well, colour will be added to the stark concrete plinths – adding tone to the embedded patterns and texture.

The bus stop area (adjacent to Albert’s Post):  Where the scoria now sits, contractors will plant Liriope muscari – to provide “wonderful texture, deep green leaves and periodic purple flowers”.

The “main street” planter areas (at present empty): Each bed will be planted out in a single species, with the species (shown on the council image) used alternating down the road. The edge of the garden bed facing the bike lanes will remain unplanted to prevent tangles with cyclists.

While the traffic issues will only disappear when everyone starts catching trains, buses and Uber helicopters to work, the village will start to look more welcoming this summer.

Bruce Morris

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Peter Whitehead would probably have been embarrassed at all the fuss – a modest, hard-working student given a lasting place in the school that helped to shape his life.

In the shadow of the Mt Albert Grammar classrooms that guided his progress from youth to young man, a monument now honours the sad story of a life lost too soon.

Peter, three years out of MAGS, was fleetingly in the headlines in 1985 for tragic reasons: he disappeared in January that year while climbing with a friend on Mt Tutoko– a challenging and dangerous 2723m peak in the Darran Range between the lower Hollyford Valley and Milford Sound.

His companion’s body was found at the base of a bluff near the peak icefield, but there was no trace of Peter, then aged 21 and in the first year of a career in computer software after graduating from Auckland University. It’s assumed he fell into one of the many gaping crevasses on the mountain.

The sad story lay dormant until December last year when a concrete-encased plaque bearing the inscription “Peter Whitehead Memorial Tree” was hauled from Meola Creek alongside the school.

Who was Peter Whitehead? To most locals it was a mystery, but Mt Albert Inc delved into archives to unearth the full story.

A kauri was planted on Roy Clements Treeway land – the urban forest and walkway named after one of Peter’s teachers – and the memorial plaque was placed beneath it by family and friends. (The picture at the bottom of the page was taken at the original 1986 planting ceremony. It shows (left to right) Michael Whitehead (Peter’s younger brother), Felicity Barnes (Michael’s wife), Alan Esler, Lindsay Esler, Una Esler and family friend and MAGS old boy John Matthews. Peter’s parents were living in England at the time.)

But the tree died and vandals added further indignity to sad memories. They apparently rolled the concrete slab 10m or so to the stream where it lay unnoticed for years before being hauled out by a digger last December.

That set off a chain of events ending today with a special ceremony in the school grounds to honour an Albertian who will never be forgotten.

A kowhai tree now sits alongside the original plaque, with a separate plate explaining to future students just who Peter Whitehead was and how he died.

Headmaster Patrick Drumm paid tribute to prefects who led the initiative to establish a permanent memorial to Peter Whitehead.

“I wonder what Peter would think of the school now,” said Mr Drumm. “Could he have imagined that we now have over 3000 pupils?

“MAGS has certainly changed over the years since Peter’s time, but today’s commemoration is about what hasn’t changed. That will always be about people, past and present – people being the most important thing in our schools.”

After a karakia by Matua Peter Walters, the school hymn by three students and a reading of the monument inscription by prefect Janelle Kara, present academic dean Warwick Gibbs, who taught Peter, painted a picture of his past pupil.

To a small audience that included Peter’s dad, Bob Whitehead, and Roy Clements, Mr Gibbs confessed to feeling somewhat daunted when he was first asked to speak “because we are talking about a boy in a class 42 years ago”.

“Fortunately,” he added, “there are some factors that help me, one of which is that I never throw anything away and that class has stayed in my memory for a long time”.

Peter was known as “Punky” among his mates and Mr Gibbs rated his third form class one of the best he had taught.

“They were friendly, funny, related well to each other and were extremely intelligent. Large numbers of them went on to become doctors and engineers and several left early to start their further education. Peter was one of those.”

His old teacher remembered “a tall, slim, quiet young man with considerable intelligence” and mark-books from the 70s showed he was an excellent scholar.

An end-of-year report from the fourth form noted: “Peter’s application is a model to others. I am extremely impressed by his ability and hard work.”

Best friend Lindsay Esler told the small gathering, which included Peter’s dad, Bob Whitehead, that he and his mate were pretty much inseparable during their school days.

“We had a great childhood. Peter was quiet but a very determined person who wouldn’t give up on things.

“He was always well-prepared and careful, but unfortunately not everything goes according to plan, and it was a very tragic loss of a person with huge potential.”

Mr Esler said the poignant occasion should remind everyone that “life is fragile. We need to seize the moment and enjoy things and take experiences as they come.”

CAPTION FOR TOP PICTURE: Bob Whitehead with Lindsay Esler beside the Mt Albert Grammar monument

Last December’s Mt Albert Inc story: Mystery plaque hides a tragedy

The post Lasting tribute to young life lost appeared first on Mt Albert Inc.

Even the mighty and powerful cannot budge Auckland Transport from its conviction that the village upgrade has been successful.

After backgrounding staff from Jacinda Ardern’s office, AT has summed up the upgrade with a confident declaration: “We hope the data and information affirms that the key objectives of the project have indeed been delivered.”

The Prime Minister had expected to be at this week’s meeting to hear the council agency’s views, but it conflicted with her New York visit to the United Nations.

In her place, senior staff and members of the Albert Eden Local Board were led through the town centre project and now AT executive Lorna Stewart has written a follow-up document.

She’s told the board and PM’s office.“… despite people’s perceptions the evidence is that travel times (and speeds) through the town centre are not extreme and overall traffic counts remain similar to that prior to construction.”

The document gives the impression everything is going as well as can be expected, side-stepping community concerns over:

• Rat-runners using previously-quiet streets to avoid the town centre hassles;
• Illegal parking in poorly-signed clearways that will continue to impede traffic flows and be a headache into the future;
• The upgrade design (into which AT had major input) that introduced wide cycle lanes and footpaths, forcing the use of clearways always likely to pose policing problems;
• The east-west flow between Carrington Rd and Mt Albert Rd that badly stutters in busy times and gives too much emphasis to the limited flow of right-turning traffic.

In the document to the board and Ms Ardern’s local office as MP for Mt Albert, Ms Stewart says travel time through the New North Rd/Carrington Rd/Mt Albert Rd intersection is about the same as it was before the beginning of the works in April 2017.

Noting that traffic volumes in the area were cut by around 25-30 per cent after the Waterview tunnel opened in July 2017, she says the current traffic flow through the intersection is 22,000 vehicles a day.

This is comparable to the Mt Eden town centre, though vehicles spend less time in traffic in Mt Albert town centre than in Mt Eden.

Ms Stewart says the Auckland Traffic Operations Centre (ATOC) is continuing to actively manage the operation of traffic signals in the town centre, and the monitoring and tweaking of the light phasing has seen an improvement in the performance of the intersection.

In the morning peak:

• Vehicle speed when travelling through the intersection from Carrington Rd has increased from 20kph (measured August 20-24) to 34kph (September 17-20) and travel time decreased from 289 seconds to 175 seconds respectively
• Travel speeds for vehicles travelling through the intersection from Mt Albert Rd have increased from 26kph (August 20-24) to 31kph (September17-20), and travel time decreased from 304 seconds to 257 seconds respectively
• New North Rd has remained consistent

In the evening peak:

• Vehicle speed when travelling through the intersection from Carrington Rd has increased from 19kph (August 20-24) to 31kph (September 17-20), and travel time decreased from 304 seconds to 193 seconds respectively
• The speed and travel times for vehicles travelling from Mt Albert Rd have remained consistent.

Ms Stewart says the performance along New North Rd during evening peak continues to present a challenge.

“While AT continues to safeguard the clearway, a single vehicle parked in the clearway will have a detrimental impact on travel time and speed through the town centre,” she says.

Since July 9, AT has issued more than 200 infringement notices and towed over 120 vehicles. The AT enforcement team will remain in the town centre during evening peak for as long as possible, “but eventually they will need to return to a rostered system of enforcement”.

Ms Stewart says managing the traffic during the weekend will be more difficult to address. AT is unable to operate a clearway at these times because parking is important to local businesses.

But ATOC is working to find ways to improve the traffic light phasing for weekend traffic, and AT’s parking enforcement team will also ensure the P60 is enforced.

On other matters, she notes:

• AT earlier determined that retaining the right-turn from New North Rd into Mt Albert Rd was the best option and traffic engineers are monitoring the situation.
• AT has improved lighting at the car park behind ASB with safer white lighting and is in the process of improving the lights in the tennis club car park. A new pole and extra LED lighting will be added.
• Other issues, including time restrictions and more/improved signage are currently in the process of being resolved.

The post AT to PM: It’s all pretty much OK appeared first on Mt Albert Inc.

As the steps to reshape Chamberlain Park edge closer, a central question remains: does this area of Auckland really need the extra sports fields provided for in the development plan?

When the Albert Eden Local Board first floated its strategy to cut the golf course in half and introduce open space of wider appeal to its community, the vision was for six extra fields.

Budgetary restraints peeled that optimism back over time to two artificial fields. Even without the cost of the land, standard sports fields are very expensive to build. And a step up to artificial turf pushes the starting point to $1.8m, assuming no work is needed to create the platform. For Chamberlain Park, with its contours and volcanic rock, the price will be much higher.

Whether Albert-Eden is desperately short of sports fields is a major point of contention between supporters of the local board plan and the lobby wanting the 18-hole golf course left pretty much as it is.

The local board points to statistics which show that Albert-Eden is one of Auckland’s poorest-served areas for parks and sporting fields.

Buying land to create new parks isn’t an option because there’s precious little available so close to the city. Even if a decent-sized block came up, the price would be well out of reach of a council that has huge capital works ahead of it.

So the 32 hectares of Chamberlain Park, owned by Auckland Council and under the control of the local board, offered a “solution” – more green space and sports fields for everyone to use, with a new nine-hole course and driving range to mollify the golfing fraternity.

But while the board obviously didn’t expect everyone to embrace its plan, angry golfers take some mollifying. Chamberlain Park is one of just two public courses in Auckland, with a history stretching 80-odd years, drawing golfers from across the city – and none of them fancied the idea of having their course cut in half.

The battle has smouldered for five years and the council is now on the verge of seeking resource consent from its own planners for the right to start on stage one.

That work may begin in two or three months and the pro-golf group, Save Chamberlain Park (SCP), is threatening to go to court if it is denied the right to have its say.

Just one of the areas of disagreement: whether those two sports fields are needed.

The board, backed by all the sporting organisations spoken to by Mt Albert Inc, insist they are. They say they are desperately short of fields and worry they won’t be able to handle future growth in a burgeoning city unless more are provided.

Advocates for the golfers say their sport also needs nurturing and that Chamberlain Park fills an important role for, among others, newcomers to the game unable to afford the high fees of private clubs.

To them, it’s not the lack of fields that’s the wider problem – it’s the sort of field the council has traditionally provided.

Standard “soil fields” take a hammering in Auckland’s winters and are often closed – and over half of the council’s 845 sports fields are in that category. The percentage rises when applied to the 600 full-size fields.

The pro-golfing fraternity and their supporters say it would be better to spend money on upgrades to sand-based fields that allow more game and practice time.

First say to the sporting codes…

Central United Football Club runs 65 teams and spends tens of thousands of dollars a year (supported by the local board) for access to school fields. It is excited at the prospect of having two “home” fields at Chamberlain Park.

Club representative Greg Fahey says a lack of fields is impeding the club’s ability to grow the sport.

Central and Auckland City operate out of Kiwitea St where the practice area is limited and the main pitch needs shielding for high-level games.

“If we were able to have some access to fields if they were built at Chamberlain Park, it would be a miracle for us – giving us the chance of a home-base for training,” says Mr Fahey.

The lack of fields is “a big issue – there’s a lack of green space in this area and what’s available is competitively chased by the different codes.”

Iain Laxon, chief executive of Auckland Cricket, says the sport is currently short of fields in a number of areas around Auckland, “with significant shortfalls projected for future years”.

The Albert-Eden area is short of a number of pitches for junior cricket and the problem will increase this summer as grades move from 11-a-side to either 8 or 9-a-side across four age groups.

Mr Laxon says playing numbers have grown 25 per cent over the last three seasons and the sport’s ability to provide enough pitches is reliant on schools.

“Any additional council grounds that Auckland Cricket and clubs could access would make a significant difference to our ability to deliver cricket,” he says.

“We anticipate continued growth in years to come as we modify the game further and create new social cricket options for kids and adults.”

To do that successfully, says Mr Laxon, the sport will rely on more grounds and wickets across Auckland.

Rugby, which was allocated Nixon Park ahead of soccer locally and handles over 10,000 games a year in Auckland, has made its own overtures to the council about coping in the future.

Rugby league didn’t respond to our questions so, presumably, lower playing rosters and long-standing field arrangements mean they aren’t so concerned.

Stretching the net a little wider, Auckland Sport and Recreation (Aktive) says the city is facing a shortage of nearly 200 indoor courts, netball courts, outdoor tennis courts and artificial turfs for winter sports in the medium term.

The group wants more co-operation between schools and the community.

But the lack of fields creates huge worries for soccer, the biggest field sport by player registration, and the CEO of the Auckland Football Federation, Bob Patterson, says: “I agree 100 per cent that we don’t have enough grounds and that it is a huge obstacle to growing the game.

“There is certainly a lack of grounds, and well-maintained grounds, across Auckland.”

Mr Patterson says clubs already make the most of schedules to accommodate programmes/matches and are as flexible as they can be.

Better turf management would help and artificial pitches, too, but they are very expensive, he says.

“We are very restricted in what we can do and rely on the council’s support. It is a huge issue for us as the city grows and as more kids turn to soccer.

“Two extra fields at Chamberlain would be tremendous.”

When he hears that, lawyer and statistician Will McKenzie shakes his head.

Mr McKenzie, who provided a supporting submission to the Save Chamberlain Park group, challenges the assumptions of sporting codes and council reports.

Auckland, he says, is brimming with sports fields and the issue is not about getting more but rather upgrading existing ones.

“If you go to a sporting club and ask if they need more fields, what do you expect they will say? Of course they will want more fields. It’s like asking them if they’d like to win lotto.”

His contention: if every sporting field in Auckland was sand-based or upgraded to a hybrid surface using “carpet” – and with the big outer subdivisions providing, as they do, new playing fields to cope with rising populations – the city will not need further fields in the future.

Mr McKenzie says the council would do much better to spend money on the city grounds that offer limited use because of their deteriorating condition during Auckland’s winter.

The remaining 40 per cent of grounds have sand bases and give much better returns to sporting codes. A properly constructed field with a sand base will cope with around 20 hours a week, he says, as opposed to 8-10 hours for a standard field.

What does that mean? Well take the average football code – rugby, soccer or league – and work out the number of field hours used by each team. It will generally come down to something like six hours a week, with practice on Tuesday and Thursday and match day on Saturday.

A sand-based pitch will comfortably cope with three teams on that basis (with juggled times and days-of-the-week); a standard field would not support two teams.

Artificial-turf fields, needed for quality hockey, can provide as many hours as needed but are not as aesthetically-pleasing and are very expensive.

Hybrid fields – where a light-weight “carpet” of fibre over sand adds bulk to grass – are a good solution, giving more playing time a week than could generally be used.

Mr McKenzie believes that rather than clinging to the belief Auckland is short of playing fields, the council should be advancing its sand-based programme to give more playing time per field and swallow up the perceived shortage.

The local board plan to create two new grounds at Chamberlain Park would be a very poor investment costing millions of dollars when a much better result for sporting codes could be achieved by using the money to upgrade existing fields.

Mr McKenzie disputes council consultant reports looking at park use and projections. They are miscalculations, he says, varying wildly from report to report, and do not stand up to scrutiny. A 2011 report showed a city surplus of 697 hours, but that suddenly dropped to a deficit of 1924 and, now, a 3000 deficit is projected for 2021.

It’s presented like “Chicken Little” – the sky is set to cave in, he says, but nothing could be further from the truth. The central Auckland suburbs have quite enough sporting fields. The issue is not about wasting money on more of them but, rather, expanding the programme to spend money on existing fields – introducing more sand-based and hybrid surfaces.

Interesting facts (courtesy the council’s Kris Bird):

• There are 845 sports fields in the city of which 603 are full sized.
• Around 54 per cent of the total are standard soil fields; 43 per cent are sand-based; 2 per cent are artificial and less than 1 per cent are hybrid.
• It costs around $400,000 to “elevate” a standard sporting field into a sand-based field; to upgrade a soil field to hybrid costs about $800,000. (There is considerable variation between sites, and costs are approximate.)
• Assuming no works are needed to create the platform , it costs around $1.8m to produce a green-field artificial field (not including the cost of the land).
• As a very rough guide, annual maintenance costs per field are soil, $25,000; sand, $42,000; hybrid, $38,000; artificial, $31,000.
• Sand-based and hybrid fields would need to be “rebuilt” around every 10 years.
• $3.7b has been allocated to Parks and Community in the 2018-2028 Long Term Plan. Building and maintaining sporting fields comes out of this budget and the exact amount is confirmed via the annual plan process each year.

Asked if there was a programme in place to upgrade standard fields to sand-based over the next 10 years, Mr Bird said that before 2015 a large number of soil fields were converted into sand-based across the region to reduce the number of closures.

From mid-2015 the funding for sports field upgrades changed to be mostly funded from development contributions rather than from rates. This meant that investment was now more aligned to areas of population growth.

Soil fields would continue to be upgraded to sand fields where demand warranted the investment.

Based on the latest supply-and-demand analysis, in a lot of areas the greatest demand was for sports field lighting and this was one of the focus areas for the council in the next 10 years.

Mr Bird said studies were commissioned every three years to examine the capacity and use of the sport field network.

The study’s findings were used to inform the Long Term Plan that, in turn, guided investment decisions.

The aim was to increase capacity where the need was greatest – through development or by optimising existing assets.

“This means that the objective is to invest in areas that have significant shortfalls and that will produce the greatest increase in the numbers of people participating in sport,” said Mr Bird. “The objective is not necessarily to evenly distribute resources across the region.”

Two sides of the Chamberlain Park argument

Last chance for the pro-golfers?

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The Prime Minister – and the MP for Mt Albert – asked her staff to set up a meeting over community concerns with the upgrade, but the timing hasn’t worked out.

Rather than a session with AT, Ms Ardern is instead heading to New York where she will attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting.

The local meeting on the upgrade will still happen (scheduled at the moment for September 24) but it will be led by senior staff with members of the Albert Eden Local Board at their side.

The Prime Minister will be briefed on the outcome when she returns and will perhaps add some urgency to the quest for ways to improve traffic flows that doesn’t push even more cars on to quiet local streets.

Bruce Morris

Earlier story:

Jacinda steps into upgrade issue

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Consents are needed before work can begin on stage one of the overall plan by the Albert Eden Local Board to cut the golf course from 18 holes to nine and open up the land to wider public use.

The council is applying to its own planning department for those consents and its officers want the step to be non-notifiable – allowing the application to be heard without outside input.

But Save Chamberlain Park (SCP), the group representing golfers, says the community should have its say and it may go to court if it is denied that right.

It has written to Mayor Phil Goff, asking him to “intervene and instruct council staff to do the right thing” and require public notification.

“Transparency and public input to such matters is what is required if the council is to restore public credibility to its processes and improve the quality of its decision making,” says SCP chair Geoff Senescall.

“… By the council’s own criteria this is a very contentious application. It has frequently been in the media, it has been the subject of court action and there has been disagreement among council staff and among elected members about whether the proposal should go ahead.

“It is a highly controversial project in which Auckland Council is both applicant and consent authority.   If these circumstances do not amount to not enough reason to allow the public to have a say, what circumstances would?”

A High Court judge has already rejected the SCP arguments seeking a rethink of the development and, outside a political change of mind, the resource consent process may offer the group a final chance to turn things around.

The court case – opened in November last year and adjourned for further argument on February 8 before the judge’s ruling in June – forced the local board and council to put the already-funded first stage of the plan on hold.

Now, if the consents are granted, work will start very quickly to take advantage of the “construction season” weather offered by spring, summer and autumn.

The first stage, which the local board hopes can be completed by the end of next autumn, involves:

• Restoring and cleaning up Waititiko /Meola Creek and associated wetland areas;
• A facelift for Rawalpindi Reserve and the creation of a new public space, buffered from the course with new native trees, with community facilities like a playground and barbecue area;
• Re-shaping four holes at the western edge of Chamberlain Park to allow for the improvements.

A start date for stage two, assuming funding is settled, is uncertain. But work could begin around 2022, finishing perhaps in 2024 or 2025. It involves:

• A redesigned nine-hole golf course, driving range and practice area;
• Two news sport fields;
• Public pathways
• Possibly a pool complex to replace the existing Mt Albert Aquatic Centre in the grounds of Mt Albert Grammar.

Bruce Morris

Earlier stories:

Golfers lose court case

Backgrounder: ‘Urban battleground’

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