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Waitākere
Ranges Local Board
10 August 2017
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Portfolio
Update Report: Member Sandra Coney
File No.: CP2017/16036
Purpose
1. This
report provides an opportunity for Member Sandra Coney to give an update with
regards to activity within her portfolio areas.
2. Portfolio
holders are responsible for leading policy development in their portfolio area,
proposing and developing project concepts, overseeing agreed projects within
budgets, being active advocates, accessing and providing information and
advice.
3. Member
Coney has lead for the portfolios of Historic Heritage/Character and Parks
area.
Heritage
Portfolio Report
West Auckland
Heritage Conference
4. The
planning group has met a couple of times to plan the second West Auckland
Heritage Conference which will held Sunday 8 October at Titirangi War Memorial
Hall. This follows the very successful first conference held last year.
The theme is “The people of the west”.
5. This
is part of the Auckland Council’s Heritage Festival. As well as the
one-day conference, a range of other activities will make a whole weekend for
heritage buffs.
6. A
call for submissions has not resulted in sufficient submissions to fill the 20
or so sports that need to be filled, so it is clear some shoulder tapping will
be needed.
7. It
is planned that on the Friday night a book about Henderson put together by the
West Auckland Historical Society will be launched in the old Council Chambers
at Henderson.
8. On
the Saturday, two walks are planned: a walk around the old Piha Radar Station
site by myself, and in the afternoon, a guided walk around Titirangi.
9. In
the late afternoon, an exhibition of early studio pottery will open at Te Uru,
curated by Myra Elliott, and following that Sir Bob Harvey has once again put
together a film evening of early home movies which will show at the Titirangi
Theatre.
Auckland Council WW1
memorial
10. The
Mayor, Phil Goff, has established an advisory group to continue working on the
planned WW1 memorial in Auckland Domain, and I was asked to join this group.
11. It
consists of a number of local board members, councillors, Fields of
Remembrance, Auckland Museum, and others.
Commemorating the
Battle of Passchendaele
12. The
local board supported a concert by the Band of the Royal New Zealand Artillery.
13. This
took place from 2 pm – 4 pm at Swanson RSA. The compere was Bob Davis,
the bandmaster Stephen Booth and Lex Calder of the Police Pipe Band played on
the pipes.
14. It
was a two-part programme, with a variety of music in the first half, and commemorative
music in the second half.
15. The
concert and afternoon were free, compliments of the Waitakere Ranges Local
Board, and about 110 people attended.
16. I
was able to talk a little about some of the men on the WW1 Roll of Honour in
the Swanson RSA, especially the O’Mearas and Mattamy, both of which
long-standing Swanson families lost two sons. Tom Mettam died in the Battle of
Passchendaele on 12 October 1917 and has no known grave. This was New
Zealand’s largest ever loss of life in a battle.
Second Waikumete
Cemetery Open Day
17. Planning
has commenced for the second Open Day at Waikumete, with a couple of meetings
so far. Sadly, Roscoe Webb has moved on to a position at Auckland Zoo from
being manager of the cemetery. Roscoe did a really great job as manager and the
quality of care in the cemetery increased markedly, so he will be missed.
18. The
Open Day will be similar to two years ago but with some improvements from the
learnings at that event.
19. There
will be more transport to get people around the very large cemetery, and better
wayfinding. We appreciated greatly the many volunteers last time, but we
realise we need to support them and brief them better for their roles.
20. As
well as a research hub in the main chapel, there will be a practical/learning
hub in chapel two where people can learn more about how they can go about
planning a funeral, what services are available, what they can do themselves.
There is a trend towards more family-run funerals and we are responding to
that.
21. We
are also hoping there will be more happening in the returned servicemen part of
the cemetery, which is such a distinctive part of Waikumete.
22. Some
popular aspects will be returning, including the Muslim burials, natural
burials, mausoleums, heritage hearse, vintage car, music, talks and
demonstrations.
Swanson Heritage
Survey Design Guidelines
23. The
Board has received these from Boffa Miskall Ltd, after the firm was asked to
expand the draft to include public places. These have yet to be presented to
the whole Board. The design guidelines provide guidance for anyone undertaking
development in Swanson, either in private places or public places. There is
also an inventory of historic heritage places, notable trees and Outstanding
Natural Landscapes for the area, and a “places of interest” list of
sites which potentially could be included in the Unitary Plan Historic Heritage
Scheduled Places. There is also a Cultural Values assessment provided by Te
Kawerau Iwi Tribal Authority.
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Recommendation/s
That the Waitākere Ranges
Local Board:
a) receive
the Portfolio Update from Member Sandra Coney.
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Attachments
There are no attachments for this report.
Signatories
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Authors
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Tua Viliamu - Democracy Advisor
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Authorisers
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Glenn Boyd - Relationship Manager Henderson-Massey,
Waitakere Ranges, Whau
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