Sunnynook Primary pupils help with planting

Senior Sunnynook Primary students planted native trees at Lyford Reserve last Wednesday, helping restore an area damaged during the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods.

The planting is part of Auckland Council’s ‘Adopt a Park’ programme, under which students do conservation work such as pest monitoring, weeding and tree planting to learn about their local natural spaces.

The students visit the reserve multiple times a year, mostly weeding, but also helping with other conservation work such as pest monitoring and litter collection.

The area the students were planting in last week is on the west side of the reserve.

During the floods, water flowed through from the top of the reserve, leaving behind refuse and turning the area into a muddy mess.

Pupuke Birdsong Project environmental coordinator Tabitha Becroft said the new trees would restore the area and provide flood mitigation for the future, as the roots will help retain the soil.

The plants were from the Kaipatiki Project plant nursery.

Year 5/6 teacher at Sunnynook Primary, Monica Duffield, told the Observer the students have been learning the concept of kaitiakitanga, so the planting was a good way of putting their understanding of guardianship into practice.

Becroft said doing physical work such as planting and weeding helps the children feel a sense of connection and involvement.

Night nature watch

Pupuke Birdsong Project is running a guided night-time tour of Lyford Reserve on 20 July, between 7.30 and 9pm, on which locals can learn about the creatures such as spiders, eels and birds that inhabit the reserve.

Seal season warning

Seal season has begun, with the Department of Conservation (DOC) warning people to steer clear of any arriving on local beaches. Between May and September, seals of various ages leave their breeding colonies to explore and rest, and are frequently spotted ashore. DOC recommends keeping dogs on a leash, keeping 20m away from the visitors, never getting between a seal and the sea, never to touch or feed them and to report any deaths or distressed animals.

Library cupboard popular

A community library cupboard is proving a popular addition outside the Sunnynook Community Centre. The bright-blue library is next to the community pantry, with locals welcome to take a book, or drop some off. It is an East Coast Bays Rotary initiative built by Glenfield Men’s Shed.

Tuesday 18 July 2023 4pm and 6pm

Event Centre - 2 Wairau Road, Takapuna

For more information visit: westlakegirls.school.nz/open-night

Friends of Takapuna Library: Why pay for new facility?

Takapuna already has a very good library, so a proposal to locate it in a new community hub in the town square and for this to be part-funded by a targeted rate should be rethought, says Friends of the Library spokesperson Ruth Ell.

Speaking at a Devonport-Takapuna Local Board meeting forum late last month, Ell questioned “a one-size fits all” approach.

She told board members she had visited Te Manawa, a combined West Auckland library/ hub cited by the board as an example of the sort of facility that Takapuna might have in the central square redevelopment, but concluded it was a very different community.

Rather than being a greenfields development like the one at Westgate, Takapuna was an established and growing centre with more existing community space than it might end up with.

“In our library there are two taonga, Research North, with important and well-used local and regional literary resources, and the Angela Morton Room, which is unique in New Zealand and of international importance.” This housed the biggest publicly accessible art collection in Australasia, with over 10,000 items.

“We think both of these important collections should stay in Takapuna,” Ell said.

The library also contained a tile mural of Te Ika a Maui by E. Mervyn Taylor that celebrated the communications cable that came ashore at Takapuna Beach.

Ell urged board members to stick with the library, which had parking beneath and a lift, making it convenient for families and older people. The library had room for study and events. She acknowledged, however, that the existing facilities did need “tweaking” and refurbishment.

“There is little to say about the targeted rate. Why would we pay for a new library when we already have a very good one?”

Ell was speaking before the board revealed its alternative plan – outlined in this issue’s lead story – to build another level on a revamped library to add a community hub there.

To part-fund a hub either at the square or at the library, the board has included the targeted rate proposal in its Local Board Plan. This opens for community feedback this month.

Of the square plan, Ell said if there was overwhelming public support for this approach, library space there should not be less than in the current standalone building. Any square hub would also be best sited in a building, close to Potters Park and Anzac St, rather than the plan to have it at the south end of the square. The northern location would be easier to access and have a bigger footprint, she said.

Any hub needed to be big enough to be worthy of a metro centre and parking needs also had to be considered, Ell added.

The hub should also include a council help desk, open when the library was closed, given reduced library hours loomed as a possibility, said Ell.

• Correction. The proposal for a targeted rate to help pay for a combined Takapuna community hub and library originated with the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board, not from council property arm Eke Panuku, as was mistakenly reported in the Observer issue of 23 June.

Takapuna Residents Association out to boost numbers

The Takapuna Residents Association (TRA) is halving its subscription costs to $10 a year in a bid to boost membership.

The organisation adopted the measure at its recent annual meeting. It is keen for more people to become involved as it focuses on what local issues to prioritise.

Issues raised by 20-plus people at the meeting ranged from housing intensification to the future of community assets, including Takapuna Library. Auckland Council was urged to ensure access to the coastal track to Milford is safeguarded.

Concerns about road safety, possible loss of a pocket park at the Spencer on Byron and inappropriate planting on green spaces in reserves were also on people’s minds.

So too, the need for clearer council leadership on emergency management.

Board member George Wood attended and faced questioning, especially about the board looking at a targeted rate for a new community hub.

He said it was a proposal, and it was up to community members to make their views known, which they could do in feedback to the local-board plan.

Meeting chair Michelle Morrison said the TRA was keen to continue developing its relationship with the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board as a recognised voice for residents.

It had been involved in traffic consultations and had made submissions on various planning applications, she said, but with limited resources and a small membership needed to work out what to prioritise.

Committee member Sandra Allen said it was disappointing that when the board gave planning feedback over a 39-storey tower proposal for the Gasometer site it asked for a condition to be imposed on developers to keep the Takapuna Beach Business Association informed of construction plans, but not the TRA.

The TRA has a mailing list of just under 1000 people, and is keen to turn more of them into active members.

Chair Steven Salt, who was unable to attend the AGM due to illness, was re-elected, with two new members added to the committee.

It hopes a new website and logo it has developed will be another way of engaging residents.

For information about the organisation, go to takapunara.org.nz