Letter to Manukau – Friday 11 December 2009

Christmas Parades

Summer has finally arrived! 

It has been wonderful taking in the last few days and it has been great to get a sense of the beautiful fine days ahead of us.  The warm days is a welcome relief after some mixed weather for the Christmas parades that have been taking place across the city. 

The parades have been an opportunity for our communities to celebrate the festive Christmas season and have fun.  We have seen two new parades introduced this year - at Manurewa township and Westfield Manukau City - which were both great events.

As usual, the Howick parade was massive and superbly run by Rae and Brian Neben and the Howick-Pakuranga Times crew.

Papatoetoe's parade was also huge, despite the heavy rain and thousands of spectators turned out at the parade route around Hunters Corner.  It was just a brilliant atmosphere and in the end I jumped out of the car and walked in the rain along with everyone else.  The Mangere Bridge parade was also a good local event with a focus on the youngsters and religious themes. 
Policy

We are continuing to proceed with a number of the planning changes in the city. 

This week, the council's Policy and Activities Committee went through key reports relating to proposed plan changes in Beachlands and Flat Bush. 

The Beachlands plan change has been the subject of considerable community consultation and input over a long period of time. We are now working through the plan change and the new potential growth zone to the west of the existing Beachlands community with some pace.

We have also had considerable discussion with the proposed second stage of the new town of Flat Bush and I am generally pleased with the progress being made.

The spectacular success of the green fingers concept and the building of the communities around this concept has won kudos from residents and visitors.  This urban design has also been recognised internationally as state of the art urban environmental development.

This is a continuing work in progress to develop what should be a close community in and around this new area of development.  For those interested there is an information open day to get feedback on the work to date next Tuesday 15 December. It is being held at the Old Flat Bush School Hall (cnr Murphys Rd & Flat Bush School Rd) from 3:30pm to 6:30pm.

Enjoy your week.

Len Brown

Mayor of Manukau

ends

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