Margi Watson’s 2022-2025 report

City Vision local board members Richard Northey, Alex Bonham, Christina Robertson, and Margi Watson at the Citizens Advice Bureau Auckland City AGM, held at Mount Albert War Memorial Hall.

Albert-Eden Local Board’s Deputy Chair Margi Watson reflects on flooding, the Point Chevalier library closure, and the mahi ahead to step up climate action, fulfil our new transport responsibilities wisely, and secure the open space and facilities that our growing population needs.

The 2022-2025 electoral term started smoothly with four out of eight local board members newly elected. I was appointed as the Chairperson for the first 18 months of the term. However, it quickly became turbulent. The Anniversary Weekend rainfall was a 1:250 year event, causing extensive flooding and loss of life. It created havoc across parts of Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa resulting in some 1,500 buildings being flooded and people in grave danger. In Albert-Eden over 200 homes have been purchased, as the risk to life in future events was intolerable. These acquisitions were supported with a $1 billion grant from central government. Council is now working through the medium- and long-term future use of that land. It also led to a change in approach to emergency planning and management in the city. But in the wake of the storms, we had further budget cuts to local board budgets on top of previous years’ cuts due to Covid budget restraints. Many projects were delayed or pushed out and there was a negative impact on service levels at our facilities.

Another significant event was the unplanned emergency closure of Pt Chevalier Library. The 1989 building had deteriorated to such a degree, even with ongoing repairs and maintenance, that is was considered too unhealthy for public use. I have been advised by a librarian who worked there in 1989 that the library leaked from day one. A pop-up service has been operating out of the Point Chevalier Community Centre for the last two and a half years as planning has been underway for a more secure but temporary location. That modular library will open this autumn and is only a medium-term fix, as planning for a permanent building continues.

The highlight for the term has been securing ‘Fairer Funding’ for local boards. This has been led by Councillor Julie Fairey, as she has led the Joint Governance Working Party this term. Local boards are now funded more fairly for their population size and levels of deprivation, except for Waiheke and Aotea Great Barrier Local Boards given their usually small populations and size. The local board budgets are set by the population (80%), deprivation (15%) and land area (5%). This has made a significant boost to our community, as Albert-Eden has historically been in the four lowest funded boards out of the 21. The first Annual Budget with greater funding took effect in July 2025. Our new budget is $29 million in a mix of opex and capex that benefits our parks, libraries, community groups, people, climate actions and environment. It will be our opportunity to catch up on much-needed programmes and asset renewals.

It was also welcome news in September that the presentation I made to the Governing Body on the allocation of $20 million from the Fix and Finish Fund was successful. The fund was created when the airport shares were sold and $20M was tagged to fund capital projects in local board areas where pre-Supercity councils (Auckland City and Manukau City) had retained their airport shares before the Supercity was created in 2010. Our project was repairs to the Epsom Library roof, which is leaking and needs full replacement and library refurbishment from the ongoing leaks. We secured $1.5M towards this project and work starts next year.

We also completed Local Board Transport Capital Fund projects including crossing improvements on St Andrews-Balmoral Rd, two bike shelters, a fully signalised crossing on Great North Rd across to Western Springs, a school crossing outside Elim School, new street trees, parking signage in town centres and improvements to Greenwoods Corner Village roading layout and crossing points. Projects to be consulted on shortly include a crossing outside Mt Albert Primary, Kitenui Ave and Wairere Ave pedestrian refuge upgrades and Allendale Road speed calming.

We have started delivering on our Climate Action Plan, completed the Coyle Park basketball court, completed dozens of submissions and pieces of feedback to Central Government and to Auckland Council policies and bylaws, as well as to Council’s Long Term Plan (aka the 10 Year Plan) and Annual Plans.

We have many challenges and opportunities ahead, including stepping up climate action; government legislation to allocate many of Auckland Transport’s responsibilities to the Local Board’ potential zoning changes related to the RMA Bill; the Te Kukūnga Waka/Carrington Development, which has just opened its first 66 homes but as yet lacks a school or other social infrastructure, and has no land secured by Council for open space; issues with water quality; and increasing storm events and wise spending of our new budgets.

Margi with the newly installed bike shelter at the Huia Road carpark in Point Chevalier.