Simon is a regular visitor to our club. Having paid careful attention to Nick’s “snap chat”, Simon suggested he might need Nick’s advice on how to work with difficult leaders (such as Winston Peters).Since presenting to us last, Simon has married Rachel and gained five children (three of them at home) and one crazy barking dog. His days of returning from work to a silent house, putting up his feet and watching the history channel have now been replaced with a household where homework takes priority, and teenaged “angst” is very real.
He was delighted to discover we had a team travelling to Taveuni and was able to share that he lived and worked in Taveuni for two years and is well acquainted with Geoff Amos. He described his time there as being two of the most amazing years of his life!
Simon went on to talk about the local projects he is involved in, namely the current housing project in Glen Innes and the very recently announced development in Pt England.
The Tamaki redevelopment/regeneration initiative is a massive project in Glen Innes which has been 15 years in planning. It will generate approximately 8000 new homes, 2500 of which will remain state homes. Simon talked about the necessity of the new state homes to be dry and ‘fit for purpose’ and the rebalance required to provide a mixture of private and state housing. He also touched on how the project was more than just ‘housing’ and advised of initiatives trying to attract young people into trades; the provision of a new scout hall and the provision of more classrooms for local schools.
The Pt England project involves 53 hectares of Crown Reserve being developed into 300 new homes. Simon felt everyone agreed that transformation is needed, but change is hard. This project will settle a treaty grievance; provide 300 houses over 10 hectares; and proceeds from the sale of the 53 hectares will be invested back into the remaining reserve and will also be used to clean up the Omaru River.
Simon touched on other local projects on the go:
- new retirement village planned on a parcel of land recently sold by the Anglican Church
- Orakei Point (near Kings Plant Barn) where a private developer will build 300 apartments
- Cycleway currently starting at GI train station going up to Sunhill, which is planned to come out somewhere around Tamaki Drive (currently controversial on options for where exactly the cycleway will exit)
- Ngapipi Road traffic light installation (delayed since April)
Simon stated the need for Council to make bold decisions, particularly regarding infrastructure. He advised of his frustration with Council not wanting to prioritise any redevelopment of Tamaki Drive, when in his view, it was very clearly needed. He cited the recent flooding of the Ngati Whatua Orakei cemetery as being particularly appalling and the ongoing floods on Tamaki Drive between Hobson Point of the Outboard Boating Club (near the boat sheds) in his view needing urgent attention.
Members asked about school rolls exploding and how this was being dealt with as no new schools were being planned as part of the Tamaki redevelopment. Simon felt current schools would cope with larger roll numbers by building upward (two stories) to add more classrooms.
Another member asked about the provision of green space. Simon agreed there should be more attention paid on how to better use current reserves, and how to make them more accessible and usable.
Simon was humorously cognisant that members liked to get away by 8:30am and finished his talk with us at 8:32am!