Wards and Communities in Manukau

Wards and Communities in Manukau

Manukau City was formed in 1965.  One of New Zealand’s youngest cities, Manukau contains one of New Zealand’s oldest settled areas.

 

Manukau City covers 55,387 hectares of land, of which 54% or 29,626 hectares are classified as rural.  Manukau has more than 3,200 hectares of open space including over 400 parks, 90 civic areas, and 150 kilometres of esplanade.  This is in addition to the 3,600 hectares of regional parks.  Furthermore, there is approximately 382 kilometres of coastline in Manukau.

Prior to amalgamation into Auckland Council, Manukau was divided into seven wards and eight communities (each having a community board).  The eight community boards were:

 

  • Botany
  • Clevedon
  • Howick
  • Mangere
  • Manurewa
  • Otara
  • Pakuranga
  • Papatoetoe

 

Each community board had five elected board members (except for Manurewa, which had six), and every board had an allocated number of ward councillors.  Board meetings took place once a month.

 

The community board had the following functions and responsibilities:

 

  • Providing a link between the council and the community
  • Advising the council on community responses on specific matters
  • Undertaking appropriate local initiatives
  • Providing input into a range of council matters such as community consultation, official openings and town centre development
  • Allocating council expenditure on street works, street trees, lighting, beautification and signage, parks and local grants
  • Approving events, the location of buildings and signage in parks, and the removal or pruning of  trees on council land
  • Approving traffic constraints and controls, parking restrictions on streets and public car parks, and pedestrian crossings
  • Determining objections to the locations of bus shelters, appeals to general bylaws, litter issues and barking dogs
  • Undertaking notified resource consent hearings
  • Providing input into matters referred to the board from the council including community consultation, district plan and resource consent issues and town centre redevelopment.

 

Two websites of interest to communities may be  http://www.phase2.org/  and http://www.transitiontowns.org.nz