Waiheke Local Board I Te Poari ā-Rohe o Waiheke

The Waiheke Local Board has now finalized and adopted the Waiheke Local Board Plan into which you provided input. It is now our guide for the board’s work for the next three years.

Your feedback was received, read and considered during finalisation of the plan, and we are really grateful for your participation. You’ll be interested to know that we received over 200 submissions, which is a healthy level of response from our community.

Waiheke residents gave overwhelming support for our proposed overarching vision of Waiheke as a sanctuary in the Hauraki Gulf.

You won’t be surprised to hear that the people of Waiheke prioritise their natural surroundings, with a large number of requests for a focus on protecting, restoring and developing our natural taonga: trees, wetlands, marine and wildlife. This fits well into the sanctuary concept.

Many people were concerned with visitor levels to the island, both as a source of business as well as their impact on our infrastructure and natural environment. While there was no strong consensus, it is clear that our visitors, whilst being a key component of our economy, also impact both our natural and built environments. The board must be mindful of the need to maintain balance between these matters in our work programme.

Transport was a hot topic and there was a strong call for safe cycle and walkways to enable reducing personal car usage. People were also keen to see an increase of electric vehicles.

As an island we are understandably focused on water: access, storage and quality, as well as management of stormwater.

We received very good support for our Dark Skies initiative, and as such will continue to support this project.

The last major theme to mention is the impact of lockdowns on our lives, and future planning for recovery and any future events. To this end we are committed to supporting our communities to develop or strengthen their emergency management plans, as part of increasing our resiliency.

We also need to acknowledge that we are working in a post-lockdown environment, and that our priorities and projects exist within a framework of economic recovery.

We look forward to working with you to progress the work you’ve indicated as important. We will be working with our island’s established and emerging community groups to progress the excellent work that is already underway.

Thank you again for taking the time to consider the issues and to give us your feedback.

Thank you to everyone for sharing your thoughts in March about the future of Waiheke, when we were seeking ideas for our Local Board Plan and Area Plan. We are very grateful for all the feedback received.

Who we heard from

March seems like a long time ago now. We held public consultation events including sausage sizzles, meetings with Community Networks Waiheke and the Waiheke Special Needs Group, a public workshop with seniors at the Ostend Hall, and a breakfast with business groups. We had one-on-one conversations with you at Countdown and at the wharf. We had planned events right through to the end of March but due to COVID-19 we had to cancel the last few meetings including one with east-end residents.

What you said

We held ten events and walk-bys, attended eight community meetings and received 480 pieces of feedback for the plan. All feedback was recorded and themed to help us draft our local board plan. The top themes from your feedback were tourism, protection of the island environment, local economy, resilience and food security, Matiatia, water and housing.

What happens next

COVID-19 has meant a dramatic shift to many locals and the economic recovery will take some time. Accordingly, we have introduced some significant additional changes to our draft Local Board Plan.

That is going out for formal consultation between 13 July and 13 August. Consultation may look a little different depending if we are still in alert Level One. We will use all the channels of online, print, and radio and be in touch with the details closer to the time. We are also planning a community meeting in July so you can give us feedback on the plan face-to-face.

We would like to thank the Gulf News, Waiheke Resources Trust, the Waiheke Collective, the Over Forties Club and Waiheke Connect for assisting us to get the word about our consultation out; Waiheke Organics for stocking us for the sausage sizzles; and Countdown for letting us sit outside on a Saturday morning.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who took the time to meet with us and our local board team, and to those who sent in your feedback. We believe we have a good plan for the challenging times ahead and look forward to hearing your feedback in July/August.

Stay safe – kia kaha

Cath, Bob, Robin, Kylee and Paul
Waiheke Local Board