Spending on buildings trimmed under budget restraints

Local community buildings needing upgrades are being ranked in order of priority as council budget cuts bite.

This seems likely to delay improvements to public toilets at the Belmont and Hauraki shops.

The Claystore community workshop in Devonport also may be affected, despite being a heritage building.

Auckland Council staff briefed a Devonport-Takapuna Local Board in a recent workshop on how they had assessed 24 community facilities already identified for work in the next few years. They sought feedback on whether board members agreed with their rankings of low, medium or high priority.

Further workshops are planned to give more information on specific buildings.

Deputy board chair Terence Harpur said without cost and usage breakdowns, setting priorities was difficult.

Spending on playgrounds, sports grounds and lighting is also being looked at, but council staff said the current focus on buildings was “because we’ve got a lot of them”.

In the Devonport peninsula area, only Stanley Bay Park’s storage shed-pavilion was listed as high priority in the 2022-25 draft works programme. Design work is underway, with costings and sign-off then needed to proceed with a project to improve its layout and open priority than the busier sports field at Bayswater Park, where often-requested work on toilets and changing facilities had been given medium priority. used by the Devonport Scout Group has been assessed as low priority after earlier urgent work was completed.

The Claystore on Lake Rd has also been given a low ranking, due to the complexity and cost of dealing with it, Jones said.

Board chair Toni van Tonder said the Claystore had potential for much greater usage. Wood said he would like effort put into it. “If left, it will get worse.”

For proposed longer-term projects – with spending to fall in the 2023-2026 work programme – toilets at Balmain Reserve and the Belmont and Hauraki shops were all ranked medium priority. Wood said the facilities at the shops had had previous spruce-ups, so could be delayed. “I know people want to see these things done, but we’ve got other issues.”

The council’s area manager for parks and community facilities, Sarah Jones, said the pavilion was the sole toilet option for Stanley Bay Park, with tennis facilities only open for limited hours. The Bayswater toilet block was also open just when the sports field was in use, although an investigation would determine if it could be reconfigured to be open all the time. In the meantime, there was also an existing public toilet at the western end of the park, by the playground.

Work on the Stanley Bay Park Scout Hall

Van Tonder wondered if Narrow Neck Beach toilets were not deserving of being on the list. Jones said that lighting had been improved and they were structurally in good condition.

An old red barn off the Lake Rd entrance to Dacre Park, near the Devonport Recycling Centre, was given a low priority for roofing work, although an assessment last year found its roof, spouting and structure to be in poor condition.

Council property arm Panuku manages properties in this area. Jones said, for some buildings, demolition might be an option.

“We do need to look more particularly at assets we hold,” van Tonder agreed.

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