Candidates Love Regional Parks in Scorecard Test
Monday 19 September 2016
Candidates Love Regional Parks in Scorecard Test
Auckland’s Friends of Regional Parks
group has chosen to highlight the issues affecting the
hugely popular and iconic Regional Parks in the run up to
this year’s local government elections.
Auckland's
parks are an essential infrastructure component to achieve
the Council's aim of ensuring that the best conditions
possible are created for the health, well-being, personal
development and happiness of the residents. This has been
confirmed by numerous comprehensive international studies
that have clearly identified the physical, mental and
emotional health benefits that people derive from parks.
With Auckland’s rapid growth and intensification
Auckland’s Regional Parks are particularly valuable as
health promoting sanctuaries from the pressures and
intensity of modern life.
Mayoral and Council
candidates in Auckland have completed an online survey on
Regional Parks by the Friends of Regional Parks group and
been allocated a scorecard rating from A-F based on their
answers. Any candidate who did not complete the survey was
given a default F rating.
Mayoral candidates gave a
mixed response and the Friends of Regional Parks group is
encouraged that those who chose to respond clearly do value
Regional Parks, but disappointed that some of the leading
Mayoral candidates did not choose to participate in the
survey. Only Mark Thomas, Chloe Swarbrick, Mario Alupis and
Alezix Heneti scored an A with John Palino, Binh Thanh
Nguyen, Stan Martin and Tyrone Raumati scoring B. David Hay
and Aileen Austin scored C with all other Mayoral
candidates, including Phil Goff, Vic Crone and Penny Bright
failing to complete the survey and scoring a default
F.
Council candidates obviously felt the issue was
important and 40 of them completed the survey. Of these a
total of 26 scored A including Cathy Casey, Chris Darby,
Ross Clow, Penny Webster, John Watson, Christine Fletcher,
Mike Lee, Richard Hills, Bridgette Sullivan-Taylor, John
Bensch, Greg Presland, Grant Gillon, Damien Light, Bill
Ralston, Tate Robertson, Fay Freeman, Olivia Montgomery,
Wayne Davis, Patrick Cummuskey, Ken Turner, Steven Garner,
Anne-Elise Smithson, Richard Leckinger, Peter Chan, Benjamin
Lee, Alezix Heneti and Peter Haynes.
A further 9
scored B including Penny Hulse, Linda Cooper, Dick Quax,
Boris Sokratov, Mike Padfield, Anne Degia-Pala, Rochelle
Gormly, John Riddell, and Holly Southernwood.
Scoring
C were Bill Cashmore and David Hay. All other Councillor
candidates failed to complete the survey and scored a
default F.
The survey asked questions about the
candidate’s support for retaining a regional network for
parks, expanding and adding to the current Regional Parks
network, providing adequate funding and retaining the Ranger
service, providing adequate funding for conservation and
protection, establishing a dedicated ring-fenced fund for
parks acquisitions, supporting the educational role of
Regional Parks, providing resources for management of kauri
dieback disease, continued support for farming on Regional
Parks and retaining decision making for Regional Parks with
the governing body. The full list of questions is given
below.
Friends of Regional Parks spokesperson Bill
Burrill said “the survey clearly shows which candidates
take the issue of support for our Regional Parks seriously
in Auckland and which do not. We urge voters to support
those candidates who have scored well in this survey.
Regional Parks are an essential part of the region’s
infrastructure, which Council has an important role to
enhance and protect, and we want to enable voters to make an
informed choice.”
Friends of Regional Parks Questions
for Auckland Council Candidates 2016
1. Do you support maintaining the current network of Regional Parks as a cohesive and effective whole to be managed regionally as a network? Yes / No
2. Do you support expanding and adding to the Regional Parks network in line with the increasing population of Auckland (several parks are reaching full capacity on occasions)? Yes / No
3. Do you support providing adequate funding to adequately meet operational costs and to retain high quality specialist Regional Parks staff and rangers? Yes / No
4. Do you support the provision of resources for the conservation and protection of the special environments, flora and fauna within the parks and of the Auckland area? Yes / No
5. Do you support the establishment of a dedicated ring fenced fund for the acquisition of future Regional Parks in line with projected population growth? Yes / No
6. Do you support ensuring the continuation of the educational resource that the Regional Parks currently provide for present and future generations? Yes / No
7. Do you support ensuring that adequate attention and resources are available for the protection of Auckland’s iconic Kauri forests and for the operational management to prevent further spread of Kauri Dieback disease? Yes / No
8. Do you support enhancing the understanding and connection between urban dwellers and farming through continued support for farming on Regional Parks? Yes / No
9. Do you support retaining decision making for Regional Parks with the Governing Body? Yes / No
ENDS