Residents care about their environment

Overwhelming community interest in our plans to upgrade the city's drains and waterways show, once again, that residents care about their environment and are willing to pay more for its protection.

Dubbed “The Kokopu Connection”, our community consultation programme asked people to indicate how much money should be spent on upgrading stormwater systems and on managing stormwater effects in the city. North Shore City sought public feedback before it lodged consent applications with the Auckland Regional Council (ARC).

More than 5590 submissions

The North Shore City community spoke up loud and clear - sending 5590 submissions to the council, endorsing plans to protect waterways and endorsing plans to upgrade stormwater systems.

This was over and above the 2,940 responses to the council's draft City Plan (long term council community plan).

The Kokopu Connection reached out to the community in different ways and asked people to rate the importance of protecting the city's streams, estuaries, beaches and Lake Pupuke.

More than 97 per cent said protecting our beaches was 'quite important' or 'very important'; nearly 94 per cent said the same for protecting streams; nearly 92 per cent wanted estuaries protected, and just over 90 per cent wanted protection of Lake Pupuke.

Strong support for Project CARE

Just on 92 per cent of respondents supported the council’s Project CARE wastewater design target, which aims to reduce overflows onto beaches from an average of 12 a year to two by the year 2021.

The consultation also asked the community to indicate how the council should fund these strategies. This part of the survey showed that 17 per cent preferred option one - the status quo; 34 per cent preferred option two - increase spending by 0.5 per cent a year; and 47 per cent preferred option three - increase spending by 1.6 per cent a year.

Wastewater projects
Project CARE
Recent water project updates