Recent announcements have further emphasized the huge importance of vaccinations as part of our road out of lockdowns, and our recovery from this pandemic. The target is 90% and in the Orakei Ward, we’re doing pretty well. As of last week, parts of Stonefields, Mission Bay and Orakei were the only suburbs in our ward area slightly under 90% for first dose. It’s so important to me that our communities are well protected, so I will be monitoring our vaccination numbers closely and keeping you updated on Facebook and via newsletter as we approach that 90% fully vaccinated target. I know there is a lot of uncertainty about what the traffic light system will mean for us all, but we do know for sure that getting 90% of Aucklanders fully vaccinated is one of the fastest ways out of lockdown.
I know, like me, many of you are doing all you can to shop local and support businesses during this tough time. Assisting business recovery is important to me as currently, based on figures from last year we are looking at between 4-5Billion in lost GDP as a result of this lockdown. At Finance and Peformance Committee last week, I moved a number of recommendations to help businesses from across the council family including a commitment to do a number of regulatory changes needed to allow outdoor dining. We have had many requests for outdoor dining in our town centre streets over summer, to allow businesses a chance to start recovering from lockdown loss of trade, and to help ease the affects of any ongoing restrictions.-you may have spotted this Newshub story about St Heliers last week.In addition to regulatory measures, we have also waived application fees and street trading rents for new applications or extensions while in Alert Level 2 or higher, and all applications and extensions will be fast tracked. If you are worried about paying rates on your business property, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Council on 09 301 0101. Ask to speak to our credit control team about the options available to you to make life a bit easier during this very stressful time. It is of course important to note that central government’s toolkit is significantly larger than ours. The $60 million business support package announced last week is a start, but my plea is for the government to keep looking at ways to enhance ongoing support for Auckland businesses, with urgency. If Auckland succeeds, New Zealand succeeds.
Our Finance and Performance Committee also looked at a draft submission on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2021-22, GST, and Remedial Matters) Bill 2021. It’s not exactly an attention-grabbing piece of legislation, but their proposed changes would mean at least an additional $33 million in taxes for Auckland Council, a significant and unfair burden on Auckland ratepayers. This is yet another example of central government not understanding the Auckland context or at the very least talking to us first to understand the financial impacts for the biggest Council in NZ.
Lastly, on a more positive note, I wanted to highlight our decision to lift the last of the remaining water restrictions for the region, effective from 23 October 2021. It has been a long journey to get to this point, and Watercare has done significant work to reduce water consumption and increase supply since May 2020. Among many other steps taken to ensure Auckland’s water supply is resilient going forward, supply will have increased by 104 million litres per day by the first quarter of 2022, we have maximized use of river and aquifer sources during the winter, we continue to work to find and fix leaks in the metropolitan system and a smart meter programme has been introduced for commercial customers. Of course, Aucklanders and their willingness to save water over the past 18 months have played a really important role. Together, we saved over 20 billion litres of water. Thank you. Locally I know you will join with me to soon celebrate the removal of the fence around the Mission Bay Fountain and to see our iconic waterfront fountain ‘play’ again.
Stay safe,
Desley
PS JUST HEARD ABOUT THE MANDATE DECISION BY CENTRAL GOVERNMENT ON 3WATERS. I’ll update on that separately