Media Release
Tamaki Community Board - Auckland City Council
For Immediate Release
Thursday 7 May 2009

Transformation Programme Great Opportunity for Tamaki

The National-led Government’s announcement on the Tamaki Transformation Programme (TTP) is a great opportunity according to elected representatives in the Tamaki ward of Auckland city.

Tamaki-Maungakiekie Ward Councillor Leila Boyle said, “I am excited about the Government’s TTP announcement. I did think the size of the TTP package would be bigger than $52 million but, on reflection, in these tough economic times it is reasonable to expect Housing New Zealand and partnering departments to work within their existing budgets. I do hope that when the economy improves, the Government will be able to invest new funds and build some momentum around transforming the Tamaki area.

“The TTP package will deliver around 150 new homes and refurbish roughly 120 houses over the next 3 years which is a drop in the bucket when you consider the Tamaki area currently contains 4,700 households! To put it in perspective, the Talbot Park demonstration project in Glen Innes moved 167 old homes up north, and replaced them with 219 brand new homes for $45 million over a 5 year period so the TTP is on a similar sort of scale.”

Tamaki Community Board Chair Kate Sutton said, “The new housing at Talbot Park was completed early in 2007, and has been a great success. There has been extremely positive feedback from both tenants and the community, and turnover of tenants at Talbot Park has dropped from about 50 percent to 5 percent. Talbot Park is a great example of a partnership working between the community, the council and Housing New Zealand. It’s a great starting point for the TTP to build from and it is so exciting to have other government departments and agencies involved to build the Tamaki community holistically into the future.”

Councillor Boyle and Ms Sutton do have concerns about the TTP’s viability, though. “We are deeply concerned about Auckland City Council’s lack of commitment to the Tamaki community. Despite the National-led Government committing to continuing Labour’s TTP, the current Auckland City Council has cut many Glen Innes projects from its draft budgets for the next 10 years. If the Tamaki community is to grow and prosper as the TTP progresses, the Auckland City Council must commit to buying more land for parks, completing the upgrade of the Glen Innes Town Centre, improving links from the University of Auckland Tamaki Campus to Glen Innes and Stonefields and building MAGIC (Music Arts Glen Innes Centre).

“If Tamaki is expected to accommodate population and job growth then Council must provide facilities and infrastructure for the existing and future Tamaki community or they are setting us up to fail by building a ghetto. We remind people that the deadline for submissions on the Council’s draft 10-year plan close at 5pm on Monday 18 May and urge residents and ratepayers to tell the Council to put these vital Tamaki projects back into the budget.”

ENDS

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