| 2023: Planning for a late summer? On behalf of Murray Chapman and his team, and the One Mahurangi Committee, we hope you are all staying safe and dry through this recent weather event. We pass on our warm thanks to all those who have stepped up to help get our community back up and running. Please see a list of emergency and other contact numbers in this newsletter below that may be useful should you, family, or friends have any issues to deal with as a consequence of the recent weather. The wild weather & flooding over the last week has certainly highlighted a few shortcomings in our existing infrastructure, services, and ability to deal with mother nature. This brings us back to the same old story about advance planning for our local infrastructure as our area grows. As many of you will be aware we had planned for a meeting with new Mayor Wayne Brown which was unfortunately postponed but will be re-scheduled. This will still be a great opportunity to not only listen to his vision for shaking up the current inefficiencies within the Auckland council organization but also to share with him some of our local issues and challenges working with the council and getting sufficient local input into areas that directly affect our wider community, such as the Hill Street intersection, Wastewater upgrades as well as the usual congestion and roading networks. As outlined by Dave Stott in last month’s newsletter, Warkworth is on the cusp of rapid population growth, so the infrastructure requirements, such as decent wastewater, stormwater, power, and roading networks, are the basic foundations for this growth. One of the challenges and reasons One Mahurangi continues to advocate for better forward planning in Auckland Council for the broader Mahurangi region is a lot of this growth is being brought forward through Private Plan changes. Private developments that have not been factored into Watercare, Auckland Transport, and Vector plans from years ago. In other words, many Auckland Council plans being implemented now are already out of date and scope due to the increasing speed of development in this region. One Mahurangi will be bringing these concerns and other issues forward to the Mayor when the meeting is rescheduled. On a separate more cheerful note, Warkworth township is celebrating its 170yr anniversary this year. Plans are still in development, but information will be updated regularly and can be found on the Heritage Mahurangi website & Facebook Page soon to be up and running www.heritagemahurangi.co.nz as well as the One Mahurangi website and newsletters which always carry various topics and community updates relevant to local business and events. We encourage people to join and help out with the various events that will be staged throughout the year as most are run by volunteers, so additional help is always greatly appreciated. Feel free to reach out to myself or our team if you are able to spare some time and energy this year. Stay safe and dry as I hear summer is just around the corner. Bevan Morrison One Mahurangi Co-Chair  www.onemahurangi.co.nz Support Local, Buy Local, Employ Local, Love Local! |
Read the full newsletter HERE>
