Chairperson’s Report from Devonport Heritage’s AGM on 22nd October, 2026

Welcome everyone to the Devonport Heritage annual general meeting.

Well what a year it’s been! I look back with fondness on the things we were concerned about this time last year – plan change 120 and the new RMA. Big weighty matters but nothing like the horror of Peninsula Capital’s Fast Track proposal that broke on us in July this year.

I think this is the biggest issue to hit Devonport in the forty years I’ve lived here.

This terrible proposal has stirred up much angst and anger. But it hasn’t divided this community in fact I think it has actually unified the locals like nothing else I’ve ever seen.

The horror of the 8 storey buildings plans and the damage it will do to the Devonport village has brought this community together and fired up people to fight for the place we all love.

When the story broke in the Flagstaff in early July we immediately emailed the Environment Protection Authority which runs the Fast Track process, to say Devonport Heritage wanted to be part of the process.

We held a public meeting here packed with 230 people with wonderful expert speakers who showed what the Fast Track proposal meant.

We were inundated with the most amazing number of enthusiastic, clever people who wanted to help. I want to especially thank Suzanne Stickney, Avril Cowie and Richard Jones for the hours and energy they have put into the campaign. But so many of you have helped.

We had street displays of the plans on Saturdays, we got a petition going, (now over 2000) we urged people to email government ministers. We held the red balloon event to show what 27 metres actually looked like, we produced the 4 Not 8 signs, we’ve done a flyer mail box drop throughout Devonport.

There’s nothing we haven’t done to get the information out there and rouse support. All around the country other communities are fighting these out of sequence housing developments and we helped form a nation-wide group to work together on this.

Here, our membership grew by a hundred and we were flooded with donations before we’d even asked for money.

Despite all the outrage, on 18 August Chris Bishop referred the proposal to Fast Track.

But the anger only grew and because of that Devonport Heritage took the step of filing a Judicial Review on Chris Bishop’s decision.

We did not take this decision lightly and we had many conversations with legal advisors and several committee meetings as we worked our way towards finally deciding to press go.

We have engaged Alan Webb KC who is leading our judicial review.

Alan specialises in public and resource management law and has deep experience with Fast Track applications.

In August about 30 of us took the ferry to the city, walked up Queen Street with our red balloon, our signs and a megaphone, just like a real little protest group - startling the rough sleepers, to present our case at a Tupuna Maunga Authority meeting.

We urged members to stand up strongly to defend Takarunga because they will be able to take part in the Panel process. We told them the authority’s stance will be absolutely critical in defeating the extreme height infringements in the proposal.

The presence of Takarunga is so integral to Devonport and the 8 storey buildings will ruin the heart of the village.

Only this week the Department of Conservation has included Auckland’s Volcanic Cones field as one of the nine New Zealand sites it wants considered as a Unesco World Heritage Site.

This means they think it has world significance.

This, at the same time the Government is trying to get rid of volcanic cone viewshafts and height sensitive protections for the very same cones! Mr Bishop views them only through an economic lens, that the protections are holding back economic development!

Now the election coming up and we have been very interested in the parties’ views on Fast Track. Labour, the Greens and Top have all said they will make changes to Fast Track to varying degrees.

And if National gets back, in things will carry on as they are under Chris Bishop’s rule.

This year we have also been dealing with Plan Change 120. I know everyone’s eyes glaze over when this is mentioned, mine included but it’s serious and we can’t ignore it.

In our submission we have objected to the deletion of 240 houses from the Special Character area and that 84 of them will be zoned Mixed Housing Suburban. Compared to other heritage areas of the city we are not badly off however we will still fight to keep All of Devonport as an SCA.

We have a mediation day on 8 December and hearings will start next year.

As well this year we made a submission opposing some parts of the new RMA legislation called the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill because this will prove to be ruinous to special character and heritage everywhere in New Zealand.

Devonport will lose all its heritage protections except for some scheduled buildings. That means all our old houses will be able to be demolished.

It’s very clear that Chris Bishop is violently opposed to not only volcanic cone viewshafts but heritage as well!

Now High Court legal action is not for the faint hearted and we have already raised a good amount of money towards the costs.

But there comes a point when everyone has given - our Givealittle has reached just over $10,000 and altogether we’ve raised about $50,000.

But we don’t want to be just putting our hand out – so we are planning some great events for next year.

The first is an Historic House Event for early April where we will open the doors on eight or so historically interesting local homes and tell their stories. This was already in the planning a year ago so we have reactivated it for next year.

This will raise a substantial amount of money and also fly the flag for the character and history of Devonport. We are on the lookout for houses so please talk to us after if you know of a great house and want to help. It’s a big job but it will be a great way for us raise a lot of money in one go - so a great cause.

We will also be screening a prelude to the “Devonport Doco” that film maker Colin McRae is making for us. He has interviewed a great many very interesting Devonport people and he is editing those to make a documentary that we will screen at the Vic Theatre in March or April next year.

There are also other pop-up events happening like the Fair Play event planned for Wynyard Street on election day morning.

And the Friday Night Live musicians are holding a fund raising concert here in the Harmony Hall for us on Thursday 12 November.

This hall has become a home for us – thank you John Davies and Dave Mills and everyone for making it so easy to have our meetings here.

As you see the community is rallying around and actively helping to raise funds to fight this development.

The following people are elected to the committee:

Avril Cowie, Richard Jones, Suzanne Stickney, Kirsty Keating, Darren White, Mary Crook, Gayle Morris and Bernice Beachman.

Avril Cowie as secretary, Darren White as treasurer and Richard Jones as deputy chairperson and myself as chairperson.

Treasurer Darren White produced the financial report for the last 15 months up to June 2026.

That completes the evening – thank you to our wonderful speakers and all of you for coming.

While this has been a tumultuous time one real positive is that I’ve met so many great people who’re determined to defeat the worst aspects of this proposal. This does not feel like a lonely task when there are so many of you united behind us.

Thank you for your generosity and personally for your good wishes. Remember make sure you’re a joined up supporter so you can get our newsletters and go to our website for more information and articles.