Character Coalition: Lobbying of Councillors and Local Board Chairs

Now is the time for Aucklanders to express their concerns for the future of Auckland and its Special Character Area’s (SCA’s) to Auckland Councillors and Local Board Chairs. Character Coalition believes a significant vote on the future status of SCA’s will be made by Councillors at a meeting on 30 June.

Lobbying of Councillors and Local Board Chairs
Update 14 June 2022

Now is the time for Aucklanders to express their concerns for the future of Auckland and its Special Character Area’s (SCA’s) to Auckland Councillors and Local Board Chairs. Character Coalition believes a significant vote on the future status of SCA’s will be made by Councillors at a meeting on 30 June.

As representative of Remuera Heritage Inc. we ask that you encourage your members and supporters to write to their Councillors and Local Board Chairs before 30 June urging them to vote to retain more SCA’s. Below we have provided links to sample letters which could be used as templates or “thought-starters”.

Councillors positions on the SCA issue were revealed at Council’s Planning Committee meeting on 31 March, where a motion to protect more SCA’s was lost by 7 votes to 14. Accordingly, Character Coalition urges supporters to differentiate their lobbying between those Councillors who supported the motion, those who opposed the motion, and those two Councillors who were absent on 31 March.

Those Councillors who supported the motion were:

Here is a letter Character Coalition has sent these “supporting Councillors” which could be used as a template, click here.

Those Councillors who opposed the motion to protect more SCA’s were:

Here is a letter Character Coalition has sent these “opposing Councillors” which could be used as a template, click here. 

Those Councillors who were absent and did not vote on the motion to protect more SCA’s were:

Here is a letter Character Coalition has sent these “absent Councillors” which could be used as a template, click here.

Here is a list of the 21 Local Board Chairs throughout Auckland. They will not vote directly on the protection of SCA’s but can be expected to make strong representations to “their” Ward Councillors on the issue. The same letter sent to “absent Councillors” could be used as a template for them also, click here.

To be able to copy and paste all Councillor and Local Board Chair addresses, you may find this document useful, here.

Thank you for your support of Auckland’s heritage and our communities’ futures.

The continued pressure on Auckland Council will ensure we are sending the strongest possible message to the bi-partisan partners who supported the central government legislation, and is putting the issue front-in-centre of local body politicians and candidates who will seek (re)election in a few months time.

Now is the time to make our strongest representation possible. Thank you for encouraging your members and supporters to write.

Sally Hughes
Chair
Character Coalition Inc
PO Box 55197
Eastridge
Auckland 1146

sally@charactercoalition.org.nz