Howick hopes to ‘avoid’ cuts to environmental services amid budget pressures

Pest control and restoring the environment are among Howick initiatives which could be under threat with a looming budget reduction of more than 40 per cent for the local board.

It hopes to avoid damaging reductions in its $569k environmental services budget which includes volunteers, education, water quality, waste minimisation, and environmental restoration and pest control,

Howick Local Board has been tasked to reduce its locally driven initiatives budget by $1.1 million from $2.5 million as  part of Mayor Wayne Brown’s proposal to tackle Auckland Council's significant funding deficit of $295 million.

The cuts endanger Pest Free Howick which carries out environmental restoration and pest control, working with schools, planting trees, and advocating for the environment.

Conservation assistant Ethan McCormick started working with Pest Free Howick as a Howick College student, where he and his friends planted ‘around 40 traps’ in the Mangemangeroa Reserve.

He says that cuts would not necessarily impact equipment like traps but could potentially impact the number of staff employed.

“It would reduce the amount of fieldwork we could do, like weeding, trapping and tree planting,”

“We need people out there to be dealing with this stuff on a constant basis.”

Howick Local Board Chair Damian Light says everything has been put on the table for the public and that some ‘hard decisions’ must be made on where to focus limited funds.

“We’re quite proud of our environmental programs and particularly our community organisations in the area,”

“We think that they deliver far more for every job we give them than the Council can do because they can tap into volunteers and community better than we can. We wouldn’t want to reduce their funding if we can avoid it.”

Light says that feedback on the budget is crucial for the Board to accurately represent the public.

“If people tell us the environmental programs are really important, and they’d be willing to reduce library hours, grants or events, then that’s gonna be really helpful for us to understand what’s a priority for the public.”

Public feedback can be submitted either online at AK Have Your Say or at local libraries and events.