North Shore suburbs get seal of approval
Joint media release between North Shore City Council, NZ Post and North Shore Fire Service
June 30, 2008
Suburb names in North Shore City have been approved by the New Zealand Geographic Board, the government agency
responsible for approving place names throughout the country.
As a result of significant growth and development across the city, the North Shore City Council undertook an extensive
exercise to better define its suburbs.
North Shore City Council’s spatial information services manager, Kumar Kannan, says growth in the city had led to a
number of new locality names being used.
“This could be potentially confusing for the Emergency Services such as Police, Ambulance and Fire Service that now use
centralised call centres and may not be familiar with certain areas within the city,” he says.
“We felt it was important to look at the city’s composition and better define the city’s suburbs to make it easier for
the Emergency Services to locate specific addresses when calls are made for help,” says Kumar.
North Shore City’s suburban boundaries were last defined in the 1970s. Since then the city has experienced the
amalgamation of its former local authorities in 1989, substantial urban development and the emergence of new communities
within the city.
North Shore chief fire officer, Denis O’Donoghue welcomes the move.
“Using consistent, co-ordinated address data is imperative,” he says.
“Our mission is to reduce the incidence and consequence of fire and to provide a professional response to other
emergencies,” says Denis. “To do this we need to be able to react and reach people quickly.”
The North Shore City Council worked closely with Community Board members to ensure that the views of their local
communities were taken into consideration. It also consulted with a number of key organisations (including Iwi, the Real
Estate Institute and Emergency Services) to define suburbs based on the communities that had already established in the
city.
The council has provided New Zealand Post, the Emergency Services and other key organisations with the approved suburb
data and is continuing to work with these agencies to ensure that their addressing data is updated as soon as possible.
Kumar says it is an ongoing process with the aim of all organisations being able to use accurate and current address
data in the near future.
Don Day, Manager of NZ Post’s Local Government Relations also welcomes the introduction of the new suburb boundaries.
“New Zealand Post has updated its Postal Address File to reflect the changes implemented by the North Shore City
Council. This data is used by many organisations to verify postal delivery addresses. The definition of the suburbs is a
significant step towards removing ambiguity in addressing and will assist with the efficient delivery of mail,” he says.
The North Shore City Council used a variety of criteria to define the suburbs. These included existing names and
reference material, heritage values and historic identity, community neighbourhoods and characteristics, physical and
natural features, and growth patterns and geographic location.
Under the New Zealand Geographic Board Act of 1946, local councils are required to clearly define and name suburb
boundaries. The suburbs were approved by the council and the New Zealand Geographic Board, and became official when they
were published in the government’s official newspaper, the New Zealand Gazette.
A search facility which enables people to locate which suburb they are in is available on the council’s website
wwwnorthshorecity.govt.nz. Further information and maps are also available in council offices and libraries.
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