Brown to face protesters at park opening

Bevan Craig (left), with locals Peter Brinkley and Bill Harman (right). Photo / Steven McNicholl

Super City mayor-elect Len Brown will face angry protesters today at an invitation-only opening of a park honouring Leigh Auton, his outgoing chief executive at the Manukau City Council.

The naming of Leigh Auton Reserve on a historic coastal farming block between Beachlands and Maraetai has upset some locals, a local community website and local community board member Lance Gedge, who is boycotting the event.

Bevan Craig, one of six locals who spent $20,000 of his own money going to court to secure the reserve, said "Mr Auton and his henchmen" had walked all over the community for years.

"It is an insult to the many that fought hard against the council and developer to secure that reserve to find it now being named after the person they had to fight" said Mr Craig.

Local community website Coast Ads said the naming of the reserve had been ushered in through the back door without public consultation.

"This is yet another strange move in what has become a Machiavellian saga," said a posting on the website.

Local resentment increased after the council organised a private function for 90 invited guests at today's opening.

Mr Gedge, one of two Maraetai members on the Clevedon community board, said he had been coerced by time constraints into a compromise to name the reserve after Mr Auton.

Clevedon board chairman Maurice Hinton, of Manurewa, acknowledged there was a timing issue with naming Leigh Auton Reserve, but insisted there had been adequate discussions involving Mr Gedge, the Beachlands-Maraetai Historical Society, the Kelly family who farmed the land from the 1840s to the 1980s, and iwi.

The discussions resulted in a decision to name a walkway through the reserve after the Kelly family.

The policy and activities committee decided unanimously on September 21 to name the reserve after Mr Auton and the walkway "Kelly's Walk".

Last night, a council spokeswoman said Mr Brown and Deputy Mayor Gary Troup initiated the naming of the park in recognition of Mr Auton's 32 years' contribution to the city.

She said residents of Clevedon and Maraetai were not consulted about the name because it was not required in the parks naming process.

Clevedon community board members were there to represent the community, she said.

Asked why the local community was not consulted on the name of the park, a spokesman for Mr Brown said last night: "The community board is the community."

As Super City mayor, he has promised to give local boards greater decision-making powers.