Your committee is well aware, from the many emails that flood into Crockers every month via our account manager (at [email protected]), that better maintenance of berms and outdoor landscapes is high on the list of things you’d like to see improved in our streets.

We are actively planning how best to manage regular weeding and the replacement of dead trees and worn-out mulch etc.

It’s more complicated than it might seem, with some of the Point’s public spaces under the management of HLC and some under Auckland Council control. There are also some indeterminate spaces where we need to establish who should be responsible for what.

While we keep on asking Council to address problems in areas they control, getting them to act can be a long and frustrating business.

Some of the streets in most need of refreshing are in older parts of the Point. Many berms there are packed full of messy flax and deities plants (the ones with little white flowers), which very much need clipping and thinning.

Please be patient while we devise a plan that uses your levies fairly to pay regular attention to the messy places you keep complaining about.

We recently commissioned clean-up of the eastern end of Kittyhawk Park (pictured). It’s a council-owned zone, but after our requests to AC got no results we decided to pay for it from HPRS’s own budget, approved at our last AGM. We plan to get more work done soon at the park’s other end.

We do know there’s much more that needs attention, and we are aware it’s important we build a system that spreads remedial work fairly around our various unkempt areas.

We really appreciate the work of laneway societies in keeping things looking neat in their own accessways. Of course, when it comes to weeding around your own house and in the space between the footpath and your front door – that’s your job!