We remain in lockdown at the time of writing this article.
Let me start by a big shout out to Ponsonby News for providing such a spread of commentary on local issues and of course the on-going focus on promoting businesses within our local community.
Our recent survey about the safer school’s project at Grey Lynn Primary provoked a wide range of responses with 52% supporting the trial continuing and 49% of respondents rating the traffic calming measurers as very good or excellent. Subsequent to our survey being conducted AT have advised that the comment period will open when Auckland is operating at L2. When this happens be sure to put your comments into akhaveyoursay.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/grey-lynn-school
The trial, once finalised, will be in place for a minimum of 18 months. The work of AT around Grey Lynn Primary brought up questions around whether there is an intent to revisit the cycleways through Grey Lynn to Westmere. We’re not aware of any work AT intends to undertake on cycleways except along Great North Road. There is still remedial work to do in West Lynn and this is likely to be scheduled for early next year. AT have been working closely with us on this project and we are satisfied with the extent and level of engagement on this project.
At our September board meeting, we moved forward with our plan for Grey Lynn to become a Business Improvement District (BID) – like the Ponsonby Road Business Association or Heart of the City. Grey Lynn is the only significant inner-city suburb not represented by a properly funded organisation working on behalf of businesses. At the moment the Grey Lynn Business Association is run by volunteers, with some small funding for projects.
Our first step in the process is to develop a database of businesses in our area and then to conduct a survey asking businesses about their issues and identifying what the priorities should be for a business organisation representing Grey Lynn businesses.
We will then take this information and, working with businesses, we will develop a plan for how a new business organisation would work and what it would focus on.
Finally, we will take this plan back out to businesses and they will be asked to vote on whether they support the development of a Business Improvement District in Grey Lynn.
This process takes time – and at this stage we are aiming to become a BID in 2023.
We are looking forward to engaging with our local businesses and to discuss how we can help make Grey Lynn an even better place to do business in.
Becoming a BID will allow us to provide a much wider range of services for local businesses and to be able to promote Grey Lynn as a business destination on an equal footing with the other city fringe suburbs.
We know that many businesses, especially retail, have been hit very hard this year. Lockdown is destroying cash flow and eating into reserves and the difficult labour market is making it hard to get skilled staff. Also, Covid-19 changes customer habits and while we go down levels, many people are still choosing to work from home.
We join the call to push hard for at least 90% vaccination as soon as possible. It is the only way to get our city back to life and our businesses back on their feet. Without full vaccination, we will face rolling lockdowns, which will devastate small business.
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Published 1 October 2021