First off, we would like to congratulate Len Brown, and all those who have been elected, to Council or Local Board – whether cycling is already on your radar or not, we look forward to working with you on a better Auckland.
The elections clearly hold a lot of mixed results, no matter where you stand politically. We are delighted to see some of our strongest allies elected, or reelected, and are disappointed that some of those we had hoped would get (back) in, didn’t. Overall, we think, its a result we can work with for cycling. And in some areas (such as North Shore Ward, Waiheke Local Board or Waitemata Local Board, hint, hint) we think there’s great news to be had for cycling in the results.
We also look forward to working with all those who have put their opinions on cycling on record during the GenZero questionaire campaign. Politicians are often accused of “just making promises”. But intentions are what counts when you look at the future. We will follow through and get those politicians who said they support cycling on side with cycling in practice.
A lot of eyes look at the future of the City Rail Link at the moment with this new Council. All good, and we strongly support that. But CAA meanwhile is looking at another project that would be much closer – this new Council is the one that will very soon make the last decision needed to go ahead with the SkyPath walk & cycleway over the Harbour Bridge. That will be their first big call on cycling, and we are confident they will not disappoint Auckland.
