Kai Zeng - Howick Local Board

19/10/2026

This Thursday: Howick Local Board Business Meeting Oct 2026
❗️This is where we make all our decisions that will impact our local communities (Open to Public)❗️
🕰12:00pm, Thu 22 October
🏢7 Aylesbury Street Pakūranga; and/or MS Teams

Meeting agenda:
Procedural Items:
1️⃣welcome, apologies, acknowledgements
🗣 Public forum and deputation:
- Oceania Literacy Trust
- Auckland Brit and Euro Car Show
- SEVA Charitable Trust
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Reports:
🗣 Governing Body Members' Update, Members' & Chair's Report
Adoption of the Howick Local Board Plan 2026
💰Howick Quick Response Round One 26/27 Grant Allocations
🚶‍♂️Mooneys Bridge South Reserve pathway options report – options and concept design for the implementation of a minor pathway
🥅Ostrich Farm Sports Field Development Project - Stage 1 Works
🚧Kōkiri Agreement Quarterly Update - Quarter 1 2026-27 Financial Year
🏛️Auckland Council submission on the Local Government (Rates Capping) Amendment Bill
🪧Approval for a new road name for a new public road along Whaka Maumahara (Guys Reserve), East Tamaki
🗓️Scheduling extraordinary business meetings to enable long-term plan and Road Controlling Authority decision-making
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📝Howick Local Board - Workshop Records - Aug and Sept 2026
🗓Hōtaka Kaupapa | Policy Schedule - September 2026
🏙️(Public Excluded) Pōhatu/Burswood Urban Regeneration Project Plan
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Full agenda available: https://aucklandcouncil.resolve.red/portal/meeting/12504
These meetings are open to the public and recorded online: https://tinyurl.com/557smvvc

13/10/2026

Thank you to Times for posting my article on how we can achieve more with partnerships

A reminder
- the Howick Local Board Event Partnership Fund EOI is open rn
- if you have other partnership proposals, feel free to let us know so we can send you the partnership application form

Howick Local Board deputy chairperson Kai Zheng writes that anyone who's worked with council knows it doesn't always move at lightning speed, and some of that's for good reason.

Story link in the comments.

12/10/2026

Howick Local Board workshop
📅 Thursday 15 October 2026 10:00am-3:30pm
🏢 7 Aylesbury Street and/or MS Teams

Workshop Agenda
Closed Agenda Items
💰10:00-10:45am Howick Quick Round One 2026/2027 Grant Allocation Workshop
👩‍💼10:45-12:30pm Staff and member update
🏢1:00-2:30pm Flat Bush community facilities - site preference and investment direction
Open to Public Item
⚠️2:30-3:30pm Transport Update - Pakuranga Road - Safety

Meeting ID: 12295
Workshops are informal sessions used to canvass issues, prepare local board members for upcoming decisions and to enable discussion between elected members and staff. We don't make decisions here - they're made at our monthly business meetings.

08/10/2026

🚦 Redoubt Road × Murphys Road: Where to from here?
⚠️ DISCLAIMER: This intersection upgrade forms part of the Mill Road project, led by NZTA - not the Howick Local Board

If you use the Redoubt Road–Murphys Road intersection, you’ll know why residents have been raising concerns for YEARS. Traffic volumes, visibility, turning movements, lighting and the overall layout have all contributed to concerns here.

While we do not control the funding, design or delivery timetable, our Local Board and community have repeatedly advocated for progress.

And Mill Road is bigger than one intersection. It is intended to improve safety, capacity and north-south connectivity across rapidly growing South and East Auckland.

So where are we now?
🟢PROGRESS? NZTA lodged the Mill Road Stage 1 substantive Fast-track application on 21 September 2026. It now goes through the independent EPA Fast-track process.
🟠 BUT… this does not mean construction is about to start.
NZTA says Stage 1 remains in design and consenting, preparing the project for when construction funding becomes available.

For residents who use this intersection every day, I understand why that isn't a particularly satisfying answer.

Major infrastructure takes time, and I know people are working hard behind the scenes. But given the longstanding safety concerns, the pace of progress remains a legitimate concern for our community.

From the Local Board, we’ll keep advocating and asking: 👉 If the permanent solution cannot be delivered soon, what practical interim safety improvements can be made now?

Residents can also keep raising these questions directly with NZTA and local MPs: What is the pathway for Stage 1? And what can be done in the meantime?

We don't control this project, so I won't promise an outcome or timeline that isn't ours to give.

But we can keep the issue visible, keep asking the questions, and keep advocating for the safer connection our growing community needs. And hopefully, by continuing to push together, we'll see meaningful progress.

06/10/2026

🌳 Black Shed Road is getting a new park — what should go in it?
If you live in the newer southeast corner of Flat Bush, this one’s for you.

In June this year, the Howick Local Board formally approved progressing a new neighbourhood park at Black Shed Road Reserve. Now we need your input on what it should look like. 👇

Current plans include:
🛝 Play for different ages, including swings and a slide
🌿 Landscaping and seating
🚶 Connecting pathways
⚽ Flat open space for an informal kick-around

Have your say by 31 October: https://akhaveyoursay.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/black-shed-park

If you live nearby, please have a look and share it with your neighbours and local families. Tell us what matters most to you — and what you think we're missing.

What happens next?
The Howick Local Board will review the consultation feedback in November 2026, before final decisions on the park are expected in February 2027.

Flat Bush is growing quickly, and our newer neighbourhoods need community infrastructure to grow with them.

So if this is your neighbourhood, now’s the time to help shape it.

05/10/2026

Howick Local Board workshop
📅 Thursday 8 October 2026 10:00am-3:15pm
🏢 7 Aylesbury Street and/or MS Teams

Workshop Agenda
🏘10:00-11:00am LBP 5: Final overview of Draft Howick Local Board Plan 2026
🚗11:00-12:00pm (CLOSED) Time of Use Charging shortlisted options and engagement approach
🐭12:30-1:15pm Pest Free Howick Ward
🚻1:15-2:00pm Howick public toilets - renewals, upgrades and future needs
⚠️2:00-3:00pm (CLOSED) Public Art
👩‍💼3:00-3:15pm (CLOSED) Staff and Member Update

More Details: https://aucklandcouncil.resolve.red/portal/meeting/12290
Workshops are informal sessions used to canvass issues, prepare local board members for upcoming decisions and to enable discussion between elected members and staff. We don't make decisions here - they're made at our monthly business meetings.

28/09/2026

Howick Local Board workshop
📅 Thursday 1 October 2026 10:00am-3:15pm
🏢 7 Aylesbury Street and/or MS Teams

Workshop Agenda
🛝10:00-11:00am Draft Play and Recreation Opportunities Provision Strategy - Play network optimisation WSH 2
🔍11:00-12:00pm Work Programme Item review
🚌1:00-1:30pm Eastern Busway Project Update
💞1:30-2:30pm Howick Local Board Engagement Work Programme
⚠️2:30-3:00pm AEM Work Programme update
👩‍💼3:00-3:15pm (CLOSED) Staff and Member Update

More Details: meeting 12297
Workshops are informal sessions used to canvass issues, prepare local board members for upcoming decisions and to enable discussion between elected members and staff. We don't make decisions here - they're made at our monthly business meetings.

27/09/2026

🎨today's art, tomorrow's habits♻️
What can our kids teach us about waste?

On Saturday, I joined Chair Bruce Kendall, member Krish Naidu and members of other local boards at the Beautification Trust Eye on Nature Creative Arts Prizegiving.

Each year, South & East Auckland kindergarten and primary school tamariki turn sustainable materials and repurposed waste into art - learning about our environment while getting creative. This year's theme is Ka Tipu Tahi Taatou - Together We Grow🌱

🏆Great to see Cascade Kindergarten & Ormiston Primary School among the prize recipients.👏

The programme is supported by five local boards: Howick, Papakura, Manurewa, Otara-Papatoetoe, Mangere-Otahuhu.
🎨the exhibition is free at the Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre until 11 Oct🖼

With illgeal dumping continuing to frustrate our neighbourhoods, we need to work on education, accessible ways to dispose of unwanted items, and enforcement together.

And starting young matters. If our kids understand reduce, reuse, recycle as everyday habits, hopefully those lessons travel home too.🤞

A few practical things you can do:
♻️Check Council's "How to get rid of unwanted items" information. Learn how to book an annual inorganic collection
📞report illegal dumping (hotline, Ask Auckland Council site, or Snap Send Solve app). If it isn't solved, keep your reference no. so we can follow up.
🏘At the local board, we'll continue advocating for stronger tools to tackle illegal dumping, better public education, and better local access like a recycling centre.

Let's keep our streets clean - together

26/09/2026

Come on down to Botany's Celebrating Cultures Opening Day!

🎭a huge line-up of FREE live performances, cultural activities, games
📅 26 Sept - 10 Oct
⏰ 10am–2.30pm
📍 Throughout thr Town Centre
🎟️ FREE

👉 Explore the full programme + book your favourites here: https://tinyurl.com/4n47yj8b

The Celebrating Cultures Pop-Up is delivered by Arts Out East, a Te Tuhi programme, generously funded by the Howick Local Board and supported by Botany Town Centre. ❤️

25/09/2026

💰Community Grant Policy Review💰
Auckland Council is taking a fresh look at how it distributes grants. Grants are a good way to activate & empower good people to do good work. Many of our great arts & culture events, environmental projects, and support for those in need come from grants. 🏘️

The Howick Local Board has heard from community groups that the process is hard to navigate, particularly for smaller orgs, new groups, informal groups, ethnic communities, youths, etc. Reporting is particularly difficult both for applicants and for funding decision-makers. So I'm happy that now's a chance to review the policy.

If you have applied for a grant in the past or have an interest in applying in the future, you can share feedback to help shape Auckland Council’s grants programme in two ways:
👉 through a survey which will be sent out to community groups in September 2026,
👉 at workshops across the Auckland region in October 2026.

📧To receive the survey link or details of the workshops, please email: [email protected]

Options for a new policy will be shaped by the feedback the council recieves. The options will be presented to a future meeting of Auckland Council’s Policy, Planning and Development Committee alongside the findings of the review.

Howick Local Board Local Grant & Quick Response Grants: https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/en/grants-community-support-housing/grants/local-board-grants/howick-local-board-grants.html