All City Centre residents and city centre supporters welcome.
Renting, Owning or something else.
CCRG meetings are the 1st Monday of the month.
If that is a public holiday, then the 2nd Monday of the month.
Welcome/Nau Mai to
OUR NEXT PUBLIC CCRG MEETING
You are invited to the Auckland City Centre Residents Group (CCRG) triennial event “Meet the Candidates (City Centre edition)” in the lead up to the 2026 General Election.
Moderated by Simon Wilson
Wed, 16 September. 6 – 8:30pm
Doors open 6pm for 6.30pm event start
Pioneer Women’s Hall
Freyberg Place
City Centre
This is an early opportunity to hear from candidates standing in Auckland Central and Tāmaki Makaurau electorates.
This will be an opportunity for candidates to demonstrate how they will advocate in Parliament for improved standards of livability in the City Centre for those who live here.
Previous Meetings:
7 September:
What’s planned for Downtown Auckland?
| Council’s Downtown Programme Team is presenting, and would love the opportunity to engage with city centre residents. |
| The Downtown Development Programme consists of projects to ‘make downtown safer, more connected, and easier to move around’, including: Better downtown bus services Safer and more accessible streets, Stronger connections to the harbour, More vibrant public spaces. This work is driven by the City Centre Master Plan with the City Centre Bus Plan flowing from that, and changes to Lower Hobson and Sturdee Streets due to the Te Pūmanawa o Tāmaki project redeveloping the downtown car park. The CCMP is clear on the priorities of enhancing people’s healthy experiences here, their walking, biking, and public transport experiences. Including along the streets in this programme are: Fanshawe and Customs Streets, and Beach Road. Beach Road in particular is highly residential, yet suffer greatly from noise and air quality issues, and connection barriers (missing pedestrian crossings for example) to the waterfront. There have been rumblings about prioritising traffic ‘convenience’ and ‘efficiencies’ (aka speed) so it will be useful to get some clarity on that. We will be alert to being told about ‘balancing the needs’ – often a code phrase for de-prioritising agreed plans, and residents. (See the recent opening up of Queen street to cars as an example of both those). CCRG are looking for a meaningful commitment and result that supports current residents and future growth in the resident population, with the conditions that will enable that growth. ‘We’re making it easier to get to and from downtown, and more enjoyable when you get here.’ |
Amongst the standard agenda items:
- Attendees and Apologies
- Approval of the Draft 04.08.25 AGM Minutes
- Receive the Chair’s Annual Report – a good summary of what we’ve been advocating for and getting on with.
- Annual Financial Statements to 30 June 2026
- Establish annual subscriptions (current subs)
- Review our current CCRG Policy Positions – what we want for different aspects of life in te pokapū tāone/city centre. – the important statements that drive our feedback to council and other groups that exercise influence or control in the city centre.
- Consider any other business and Motions for the meeting – if you have a motion please email it before 5pm Sunday 5 July 2026.
- Elections for the Committee
Have an area of interest you want to drive for CCRG? – join the committee and help us make it happen. Nominate HERE or at the meeting itself. Once elected, the Committee will elect from amongst its members the Chair, Deputy Chair, Secretary and a Treasurer.
All are welcome to attend the AGM, but to nominate and vote you need to be a Full or Student/Senior CCRG member living within the city centre boundaries, and attending in person.
With 🙏🏻 to the Ellen Melville Centre
Life in the city centre is quite different from that in the suburban parts of the local board that encircle the city centre beyond the motorways.
CCRG’s purpose is well-established, and its positions are voted on at AGMs.
CCRG were set up some 20 years ago to provide council with a residential input on expenditure of the city centre targeted rate.
We, along with other stakeholders in the City Centre Advisory Panel continue to strongly support the city centre masterplan.
Outcome 6 of the CCMP is Residential City Centre Neighbourhoods
For CCRG, that agreed plan continues to provide the single best laid out short to long term strategy for progressing and changing the city into an even better place for its residents, and therefore for everyone else.
It’s always good, if not advisable and required, to have an agreed plan!
May 2026:
Chat with the Chairs
how we prioritise the needs of residents within decision-making
Not by the fireside as that is not possible at Ellen Melville.
Instead a kōrero between Waitematā Local Board Chair Alex Bonham, and CCRG Chair Antony Philips.
In the comfortable warmth of the
Helen Clark Lounge
Ellen Melville Centre
This will take the form of questions from CCRG and chat.
And then questions from the floor.
April 2026:
Auckland council conducts long term environmental monitoring across the region, including for air quality. In general, air quality has improved over the last several years but changes have not been uniform. This presentation will give an overview of council’s monitoring activities and recent reports, focusing on the latest air quality monitoring projects in the city centre and what the future might look like.
Our presenter was Gustavo Olivares Pino, air quality scientist managing Auckland Council’s air quality monitoring network. Gustavo comes from Santiago, Chile, where the view of the Andes in winter is often obscured by a layer of smog, which motivated him to work in air quality so that “everybody can see their mountains”. Gustavo has an MsC in Chemical Engineering and more than 25 years of experience in air quality.
Read Gustavo’s Ambient air quality in Auckland – trend analysis 2015 to 2024.
Council also has an environmental data portal with an Air Quality page.
Monday 3 February
With the Auckland Local Alcohol Policy (LAP) – Temporary Freeze ending on 16 September 2026, we brought together about experts from the National Public Health Service, and Communities Against Alcohol Harm to learn about and discuss matters such as alcohol use/abuse, Liquor License restrictions/sales, the current city centre situation good and bad (police stats) – LAP, and it successes/failures,
What’s next for the LAP?
You can also read about the CCRG Approach to Alcohol License application, renewals, and variations in the City Centre,
Come and be part of the discussion.
Bring your own city centre kōrero and pātai/questions, and city centre fandom, and we look forward to seeing you.
Ellen Melville Centre, Freyberg Place.