Two Great Milford Community Events Organised by Milford Business Association
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Newsletter 12 October 2016 (1/6) www.milford.org.nz. [email protected] PO Box 31 067, Milford , Auckland 0741 Milford Beach. Auckland Weekly News, 27 March 1913. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries. Two great Milford community events organised by Milford Business Association Advance advice to MRA members It’s back in 2016! The Harcourts Cooper & Co Christmas By The Lake Symphony Concert Saturday, 26 November @ Sylvan Park, Lake Pupuke (raindate, Sunday, 27 November) Tickets available in Milford from Mon, 14 Nov – Be quick! Specific conditions below. Harcourts Cooper & Co - Christmas by the Lake is the ultimate carol service, with the full Auckland Symphony Orchestra performing all your favourites, a talented 180 pupil choir, made up from Milford School, Carmel College, Westlake Boys & Girls, Glamorgan School, Takapuna Primary schools. Supporting them will be a giant screen with all the words in case you get stage fright! There will be ample entertainment for the kids; face painting, balloon twisters, a giant slide and bouncy castle and Santa himself. This year photos can be taken with Santa and his cheeky elves, then you can take home your photos for FREE!! Food vendors on site or BYO picnic. Alcohol to be consumed responsibly and with care. Tickets are free with any purchase from Milford businesses (excluding New World & Countdown). $10 spend = 1 ticket, $20 spend = 2 tickets, $30 spend = 3 tickets and so on. A maximum of 6 tickets can be collected at any one time. Tickets can be exchanged for receipts (receipts must be for purchases made after 14th November) at the following businesses; Harcourts Cooper & Co, helloworld, & Milford Centre Information Desk. So, some good reasons to get your Christmas shopping sorted early in Milford! No tickets are required for children 5 & under. Two tickets per child in the choir have been reserved. Please contact you school choir manager to collect them. Gates open 5 pm. Live Music from 5-30 pm. Concert 6 till 8 pm. Milford’s Pirate Market Day Saturday 12 Nov, 9-30am to 2pm All the usual fun including the Pirate Ship Bouncy Castle, live music, craft stalls & kids entertainers plus a new food space, the chess sets & games for kids. The Facebook page link is: https://www.facebook.com/events/1394202463924018/ Website is: http://www.milfordshops.co.nz/webpages/pirate-market-day/ Then join the competition excitement on Saturday 19 Nov at Lake Pupuke. The R F Bennett Memorial Shield rowing regatta always draws an exceptional crowd. Newsletter 12 October 2016 (2/6) Standing room only Thanks to all for coming to Milford’s Heritage Festival event What an amazing turnout to our photo exhibition and talk last Wednesday, 5 October. People were obviously intrigued to find out more about Milford’s early years as a place with a ‘reputation’. Debbie Dunsford took us back to an era when sunbathing was a new and rather risqué pastime. And Milford, with its propensity for good surf swimming and situated at the end of the steam tramline, found itself at the forefront of protests about this racy behaviour. The steam tram (right) ran a route from the Bayswater wharf to Takapuna, then along Hurstmere and Kitchener Rds to Milford. It returned to Takapuna along Shakespeare Rd and around Lake Pupuke, then back to Bayswater. The tram ran from 1910 until it closed in 1927. This photo shows the tram somewhere in Shakespeare Rd. On weekends, the tram had up to four carriages to handle the crowds. Note the ‘cowcatcher’ on the front. Graham Stewart Collection. The Auckland Weekly News photo (left) was published on 19 March 1914. It gives a good feel for the crowds, although no one’s dress seems to be especially revealing, as had been claimed. The day is a Sunday and the three gents on the left are clergymen holding a service, presumably with the hope of bringing some of the beach-going flock into Auckland Weekly News, 19 March 1914. Sir George Grey Special Collections, their fold. Auckland Libraries. Our exhibition of around 100 photos included 20 new images from the collection of local resident, Mr Denys Marett. Since the late 1950s, Mr Marett has taken photos that show how Milford and Auckland have changed. About 90 people came to look at the photosbetween 3pm and 7pm. We counted130 at the talk itself. Warmest thanks to Milford Senior Citizen’s Club for the use of their lovely hall and to the Milford Business Association for the loan of their projector and screen. Thanks also to Benefitz for their generous help with reproducing our photos and to our sound professional, Paul Johansen (Soundman), for providing and working the sound system. Special thanks also to our committee members, Debbie, Norma and Adrianne, for setting up and minding the ‘gallery’ during the afternoon. Summer Operating Hours for Wairau Bridge With daylight saving time starting from the end of September, the bridge opening hours are now 6am to 10pm. Newsletter 12 October 2016 (3/6) 2016 Auckland Council elections After what seems like the longest election campaign in living memory (and thank goodness we don’t live in the USA!), almost 40% of the people have voted and the results are in. There are a few changes for us in the North Shore Ward and Devonport-Takapuna Local Board, mainly as a result of people vacating (or shifting) office. North Shore Ward Councillors – Chris Darby and Richard Hills North Shore elects two Councillors to the governing body (council). The North Shore ward covers both the Devonport- Takapuna and the Kaipatiki Local Board areas. With George Wood not standing for re-election as councillor, Chris Darby was the only sitting councillor on the ballot. Chris received a massive vote of 19,396. This was 7,000 ahead of the second and third ranked candidates. MRA has developed an excellent relationship with Chris since 2010. We know him to be very conscientious and well-briefed. And he works hard to balance local community interests and views with regional and ‘greater Auckland’ issues – not always the easiest thing to do. We think his re-election is well deserved and look forward to continuing the strong relationship MRA has with him. Richard Hills is the second North Shore representative with 12,651 votes. He also topped the poll for the Kaipatiki Local Board which indicates the good impression he has made there since 2010. We think it is a good thing that each board area has a ward councillor who comes from and understands their local area well. We look forward to meeting Richard and briefing him on issues of importance to Milford. Devonport-Takapuna Local Board With three sitting members not standing again in 2016, the election was perhaps wide open. We were rather disappointed at the regular comments by some politicians that the D-T local was ‘dysfunctional’. Our feeling has always been that the board was split down the middle over the Takapuna campground issue but worked together well on everything else. Claiming it was ‘dysfunctional’ always appeared to us to be unfair and a way of undermining community faith in their local representatives. With the departure of the three members in favour of the Yachting NZ plans for the Takapuna Reserve, and with Team George Wood campaigning on a platform of retaining the caravan park, we hope to see this issue quickly resolved in line with the community’s overwhelming views. Then, we expect all board members to work together co-operatively for the good of the whole Devonport-Takapuna community. The six confirmed Devonport-Takapuna local board members for this term are: Mike Cohen - 8,687 votes George Wood - 8,099 votes Grant Gillon - 7,640 votes Jan O’Connor - 6,688 votes Mike Sheehy - 5,642 votes Jen McKenzie - 5,375 votes The local board has already met to discuss matters such as who will be chair. It will be interesting to see whether they decide to split the chairmanship into two 18 month terms or one entire term. We will keep you posted. Unitary Plan – Auckland 2040 challenge zoning decisions You have probably already heard that Auckland 2040 will appeal the Hearing Panel’s zoning decisions to the Environment Court. Other appeals on the Unitary Plan are also going ahead by the Character Coalition, Forest & Bird, and many others. http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/plansstrategies/unitaryplan/Pages/paupappeals.aspx# appealupdates MRA decided not to appeal the increase in heights allowed on the Milford Mall site but our committee did decide unanimously to make a donation of $1,000 to Auckland 2040 for their appeal. They did all the heavy lifting during the Unitary Plan hearings and we believe we should support them in their appeal. Auckland 2040 report they have attended a preliminary hearing and a well regarded judge with extensive planning expertise has been appointed. The first substantive hearing is in late November. Auckland Council is to provide a summary of the Appeals and, until then, Council is working under both Plans. Once the summary is done, Council will advise which parts of the PAUP are operative .Meanwhile people are getting very frustrated as Council processing has slowed down . Newsletter 12 October 2016 (4/6) Wairau Estuary Activities Brian Byrnes Reserve planting day report, Sunday, 25 October On what was yet another Sunday of torrential rain, around 14 local residents still turned out to a planting day on the banks of the small stream at Brian Byrnes Reserve (between the Milford bowling club and Prospect Terrace). The plants were laid out and people were assisted by two Council contractors and Local Board Member Mike Cohen.