About Us
This website has been developed by the Blockhouse Bay Business Association.
Funding for this website and events in the Village comes directly from the Village business ratepayer. Additional support where required comes from Auckland Council, the Whau Local Community Board and The Trusts Charitable Foundation. If you think you have a contribution to this site, or you would like to raise any issue on behalf of the community, please contact Jodie Judd, Town Centre Manager for the Blockhouse Bay Business Association Inc.
Blockhouse Bay Business Association meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month at 6pm until 7pm at one of the local businesses along Blockhouse Bay Rd.
Meetings are open for all members to attend, please register your attendance with the Town Centre Manager, Jodie Judd, one-week prior so your topic can be added to the agenda and a copy of the agenda forwarded to you with the venue details.
Auckland Council Information
There's a range of ways to get in touch with Auckland Council so you can choose the method that is most convenient to you.
Phone: 09 301 0101
Enquiries 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
Fax: 09 301 0100
Website: www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
For information about graffiti removal, rubbish collections, reporting damaged property please log onto the website below and follow the links. In some cases the links will take you to the old Council websites until such time as all the information is updated and places on the one site. Please keep checking the website to ensure you are using the most up to date contact information.
What is a Business Association programme?
Business Association programmes are based on a partnership between local government, the business community and the community at large.
Basic objectives of the programme are:
- An enhanced physical environment
- Heritage conservation
- Business creation and development
- Increased employment and local business investment.
The programme is intended to identify and reinforce the unique identity of a place and to promote that identity as part of its development.
Businesses pay Business Association rates to fund central design, heritage conservation, business development and promotional projects to encourage new businesses, customers and life back to their town centre.
Approach
The programme focuses on five main areas of activity as follows:
- Organisation: Getting started, bringing business and community representatives together to make things happen. This includes managing and administering the programme through an elected committee and through the Business Association Management Committee. It also covers the roles of sub committees and the coordinator, developing coalitions and partnerships, public relations and communication and managing finances. It further includes building consensus and cooperation among the many groups and individuals who have a role to play in the Association process.
- Design: Co-ordinating physical improvements to enhance the image of the town or shopping centre and promoting what it has to offer. This includes encouraging appropriate new construction, long term planning and developing sensitive design management systems.
- Heritage conservation: Capitalising on the heritage significance and assets of the town centre and using it as a means of establishing an identity. This includes rehabilitating and conserving heritage buildings and streetscapes and encouraging sympathetic new development in centres with a significant heritage resource.
- Promotion: Marketing the traditional commercial district's assets to customers, potential investors, new business, local citizens and visitors. This includes through special events and retail promotions.
- Business development: Strengthening the district's existing economic base while finding ways to expand it to meet new opportunities - and challenges from outlying development.
The critical factor in making Business Association's five point programme work for the programme is that all of the points must be allotted equal importance and must be developed and promoted together.
Where one aspect of the programme in given predominance over others or where any of the five points are ignored, it is not possible for the programme to reach its full potential.
Philosophy
The five point approach succeeds best when combined with the following eight principles:
- Comprehensive: A single project cannot revitalise a downtown or commercial neighbourhood. An ongoing series of initiatives is needed to build community support and create lasting progress.
- Incremental: Small projects make a big difference. They demonstrate that "things are happening" on the Business Association and hone the skills and confidence the program will need to tackle more complex problems.
- Self-Help: Local leadership can initiate long-term success by fostering and demonstrating community involvement and commitment to the revitalization effort.
- Public/private partnership: Every local Business Association program needs the support and expertise of both the public and private sectors. For an effective partnership, each must recognise the strengths and weaknesses of the other.
- Identifying and capitalising on existing assets: Communities should be encouraged to recognise and make the best use of their unique assets. Local assets provide the solid foundation for a successful Business Association initiative.
- Quality: From shopfront design to promotional campaigns to special events, quality must be the main goal.
- Change: Changing community attitudes and habits are essential to bring about a commercial district renaissance. A carefully planned Business Association program will help shift public perceptions and practices to support and sustain the revitalization process.
- Action-oriented: Frequent visible changes in the look and activities of the commercial district will reinforce the perception of positive change. Small, but dramatic improvements early in the process will remind the community that the revitalization effort is under way.
History
Blockhouse Bay is rich with Heritage Walks. There is a 36 page booklet about them available from the Community Library or from the Historical Society.
Or you can simply click here to download a PDF of this booklet.