We are now rapidly approaching 100 days in lockdown. I know it has seemed endless, and the days are well and truly blurring into one now, but it appears there is finally light at the end of the tunnel! Most schools are back in some form from this week, so hopefully that will give some respite to the parents who have been doing their best to work from home while also keeping up the homeschooling.
The Orakei Ward suburbs of Newmarket, Grafton, Remuera and Meadowbank are all over 90% fully vaccinated. St Johns is just about there, and our other suburbs are not far behind. It was great to have confirmation yesterday that we can head out of Auckland for the holidays, but you will need your vaccination certificate to cross the border and for a lot of other activities you might be planning for your summer. The vaccination certificates are available for download at https://mycovidrecord.health.nz/ but the website has been completely overloaded since it went live, so you might have to wait a day or two to be able to get access. Please keep talking to your friends and family and making sure they’ve had both doses of the vaccine. It’s not just about the 90% target, but about keeping everyone in our community safe as things start to open back up. If you are still awaiting your second ‘jab’ there will be a vaccination bus in Mission Bay on Saturday 9am-3pm, oppositie Movenpick.
Yesterday was a big milestone for our libraries. After 3 months of lockdown, our libraries are finally opening their doors again and resuming normal services. While our libraries staff have been preparing to re-open, the click and collect service has been hugely popular, with over 94,000 items borrowed throughout the region. St Heliers was amongst the most popular, with over 5000 items issued and 380 “Ready-to-Go Reads” packs requested. The click and collect service will continue to be available, but if you prefer to browse the shelves, please try to keep your visit to under 30 minutes to help our staff maintain safe limits on the number of people inside our facilities. Public computers, printing and wi-fi will also now be available for use.
We are also getting pretty close to changing to “red” in the new traffic light system, which will allow bars and restaurants to open with restrictions and safety measures in place. You’ll remember from previous newsletters that I have been working with businesses to make this reopening phase as easy as possible and have been pushing for Council to remove some of the red tape and regulatory barriers wherever possible, as well as advocating to central government. As it turns out, there’s quite a lot of red tape to be removed, but we’re making good progress. You can read more about it here.
In local news, you would have seen in the media last month that the Environment Court ruled against the controversial development planned for the Mission Bay waterfront. This decision has been appealed to the High Court which has disappointed many locals. I will keep you updated when I know more.
You may also have heard about a privately owned block of bush on Pamela Place in Kohimarama being up for sale. The site is precious to many in the community, and I’ve heard from many advocating for its protection. I was hugely annoyed to hear council had turned down purchasing this land without any input from councillors or our local board. However, I have pushed for an urgent assessment of this property and we are looking into any alternative options that may be available to maintain such a valuable asset for our bird corridor.
Lastly, some positive news. The new pathway at Vellenoweth Green is now open to the public. The finishing touches were completed by our contractors last weekend and it’s looking great. I hope you get a chance to go have a look.
Hang in there Auckland, it looks like we’re almost there….
Desley