Phase Two - Waitematā Project Update

This consultation closed on 13 August 2020. Thank you for having your say.

We received 331 pieces of feedback.

These included:

• 113 submissions through our online form
• 211 hard copy submissions, around 130 of these came from targeted youth engagement
• Seven pieces of feedback through our social media channels.

Key feedback themes

In general, we received good support, with 53% of people saying the plan reflected community’s needs and aspirations quite well, and 27% saying it did that very well.

There was support for:

• our environment and climate change response
• transport, particularly active transport modes such as walking and cycling
• community events and activities
• local businesses’ recovery from the impact of COVID-19.
• support for tree planting and sustainability initiatives.

Top outcomes

The top three outcomes included:

• a future-focused, green and climate change resilient Waitematā (66%)
• sustainable transport network that is safe and accessible (64%)
• high quality urban development that has accessible, versatile, and sustainable public and private spaces (48%)

Top initiatives

People selected the following top three initiatives under the ‘connected communities that are inclusive and equitable’ outcome.

This will help us prioritise the delivery of initiatives over the next three years:

• partner with agencies to respond to homelessness in the city centre (47%)
• work with community groups to connect people across generations and diverse cultures (46%)
• support community-led projects for energy efficiency and reduced emissions (42%)

In addition, people thought we should do more to respond to Climate Heating (67%).

They also thought the plan would help the community and local businesses recover from COVID-19 (52%)

Changes we made as a result of feedback

• Feedback highlighted the impacts of light and noise pollution in the city centre on residents and an increase in anti-social behaviour and crime in certain areas.
• We have therefore acknowledged these as challenges in our quality urban development outcome.
• We received a number of requests to increase play equipment for older children in local parks so we now focus on providing equipment for older children and teenagers.
• We also specifically address the need for teenagers and young adults to have space to make connections.
• Some were concerned that we didn’t prioritise heritage enough. To respond to this, we have added a new initiative to our objective to ‘Treasure and protect our heritage buildings and structures’.
• We will continue to advocate to the Governing Body to allocate adequate funds for heritage but this now includes funds to identify as well as restore and preserve heritage buildings and structures.
• While the sixth outcome about the economy was not singled out as a top outcome, we received many comments about supporting businesses to recover from COVID-19. We therefore modified the outcome to focus on local businesses.
• We have also strengthened the emphasis on diversity by acknowledging specific communities and our focus to support mana whenua interest.

What happens next

We adopted the Waitematā Local Board Plan 2020 on 3 November 2020. You can view a copy of the final plan on our website.

More information

If you have any questions related to this project, email us.