Sat 28th November to Sat 26th December

Waohooooooo! What a result.……..much like the All Whites……….and thanking you Santa!

This is a golden opportunity Ponsonby people. We need to take full advantage of the Telecom Tree and make it very hard for Telecom to even consider other future destinations. We are not sure how many years we have, so get behind it and get involved this Christmas. We have made a financial contribution towards the tree’s installation in Western Park, so make the most of it.

Ponsonby can sparkle much like London’s Oxford & Regent Streets – we’ve got Franklin Rd lights, the Telecom Tree and all of Ponsonby’s businesses to take up the challenge and shine.

December 14 – 23: Open Till 8pm Weeknights

Yes – Ponsonby will be open for late night Christmas shoppers!!  Please take advantage of this opportunity and support your local businesses, as we need to build momentum on this initiative each year and prove to business owners that it is worth their while.  

A perfect opportunity to shop while sneaking in a few tipples and nibbles along the way.  In fact, we think it’s such a good idea that your favourite bar/restaurant (participating of course) has come to the party and will be offering a special xmas drinks promotion, once you provide a store receipt as proof of a late night (after 5pm) Ponsonby purchase. 

......see EVENTS page for Venues and Terms.

Saturday 5th December: 11am - 4pm

Eat, drink and be merry!! Join the Christmas Party as we welcome the festive season in true Ponsonby style!  Take advantage of the fabulous market day deals on offer and let your senses be entertained by a stack of musicians, choirs and performing artists.  We’ve even got our beautiful drag queens handing out xmas cake.

Keep an eye out for the Greater Auckland Chorus, the DeSotos, the Jazz Santas, Lewis McCullum’s sax trio, Cameron Bennett and his One More Dollar band, the amazing percussion group AK Samba, African band Zoh Zoh, Mohave, Queen City Big Band, Easy, Radioglo, Montaca and a stack more.

Lots for the kids and Santa arrives in Western Park at 2pm by Fire Truck! Ho ho ho...

A new arts trust has been formed by local art enthusiasts to provide opportunities for artists and to promote the creative talent that has always been an integral part of the Uptown community.

The Uptown area is loosely defined as the Western fringe of the CBD, including Ponsonby, K Rd, Grey Lynn and surrounds. Please forward all enquiries to Deborah White 021 639789.

The Annual General Meeting for the Ponsonby Business Association was held on Tuesday 29th September at the St Columba Centre.  Congratulations to the newly elected board which comprises of:

Cr.Greg Moyle
Bruce Kilmister – Western Bays Community Board
Felicity O’Driscoll (Chair) – Cook The Books
Elias Hanlon (Vice Chair)– Ponsonby Pool Hall
Peter Reid - Republic
Brett Humble – Lemongrass House
Anne Sim – Santos Cafe
Merete Molving - Shellshock
Gerrard Merrick – MBE Business Service

Tony McGeorge of the Ponsonby Social Club has joined the PBA Board as of this month. We welcome him and look forward to his participation and drive. Tony will no doubt bring some fresh hospitality ideas to the board table.

.........and a first date with Cuba Street Carnival.

In February this year we held a Mardi Gras fundraiser event in the Splore Living Lounge, Western Park; to launch the concept and return of a Ponsonby styled annual big event that will celebrate Ponsonby & celebrate its’ people. 

Its’ people being the local, surrounding and broader community of Auckland, who have been calling for the revival of such an event……for some time now.

That’s right, after a very, very long time this work has now been scheduled into the system and will hopefully be completed by early December. 

We love upgrades to our strip and lets make this one of many!

A momentus congratulations and celebrations to Martin Leach and the team at Ponsonby News for reaching the 20 year milestone! 

The greater Ponsonby area is truly blessed to have such a treasured publication available for both community and businesses to enjoy, with such a passionate and dedicated team to drive it. 

Myself and the Ponsonby Business Association offer sincere gratitude and encouragement for another two decades.

Saturday 12th September

Dear Justin,

My name is Benny Castles I am one of the Directors of WORLD, and we just wanted to get a note through to you to say thank you very much for organising the Market Days as they have quickly become a highlight on our calendars. Not only are they are great day for trading, but they are also a wonderful time to enjoy a more social atmosphere with our customers and with other Ponsonbyites. Keep up the good work and again thank you.

Kind Regards, Benny, WORLD.

A huge huge thank you to all those who participated and braved the weather for our recent Market Day – the comment above captures the result we are after for all our business and the community!! 

Thanks for that Benny.

After consultation with PBA stakeholders we have the following dedicated volunteers to form Ponsonby’s Sustainability Committee. 

The committee will begin to address relevant issues with a future goal to make Ponsonby one of the leading & most sustainable areas of NZ.  Please feel free to contact me should you wish to be involved?

Jeremy Hunt – Fisheye
Stephen Marr – Stephen Marr
Jonny Rudduck - Il Buco
Siddhi Smith - Encore Fashion Recycle Boutique
Felicity O'Driscoll - Cook the Books
Tony Moffat - Murder Burger
Peter Marshall - One 2 One Cafe
Justin Bade - PBA

The signs are up as Ponsonby slows to 40. The speed reduction has not only achieved a step in the right direction for safety, but has also reduced the motorist angst. 

Driving along Ponsonby Rd has become a more peaceful and enjoyable affair; it takes a little getting used to with some reprogramming of the gas pedal – but drivers are more relaxed and the atmosphere has noticeably changed for the good.

It’s even a whole lot quieter when walking!

With Rugby World Cup 2011 fast approaching it's time to think about the golden opportunity this mega event provides for Auckland businesses. To help get started Auckland City Council is assisting the Auckland region in developing a Rugby World Cup 2011 Business Opportunities Guide. 

An online condensed version of the guide is currently available at  www.auckland2011.com/Business and a written copy is available from our office, please contact us for a copy.

.........we shout you a good time and you get to shout your good ideas at us:

Your opportunity to get together with your business peers and discuss/create/pitch relevant ideas that the PBA can help implement.

Shout Sessions will be held quarterly  - date and venue will be advised.

See EVENTS page for next Shout Session.

Keep New Zealand Beautiful (KNZB) and the PBA have 10 more FREE Smokin Stations available for installation in our Ponsonby area – first in best dressed basis, so be quick to put in your request. 

You would have already noticed the 30 units in place that are working extremely well.

“Auckland City Council's proposal to extend on-street Pay and Display operating hours to 10pm in the CBD is designed to give a helping hand to the city's retail, hospitality and entertainment businesses by improving the public's access to on-street parking”  - quote taken from Auckland City Council’s Parking Manager. 

Hmmmmm - this to me is nothing but an attempt to increase parking revenue and as such we have strongly disputed it (much the same as the proposed liquor licensing changes which were also not well thought out??). 

Having to check a parking meter while eating, drinking, whatever you are doing, is nothing but ludicrous and disruptive to businesses.  Lets try that again?

We have been advised that Auckland City Council will be running the retail spend analysis project again and will have Marketview data coming out to us within the next two months.

In 2005/2006 the council commissioned research on retail spend data captured from BNZ customers using their debit and credit cards for goods and services in each of the 17 mainstreets & town centres.

With BNZ claiming a market share of approximately 15% this was an excellent tool to give an indicative view of where customers are coming from, age and gender, transaction values, store category and more. The BNZ is the only bank in New Zealand to capture debit and credit card spend.

We have received approval for two new Community Notice Boards to be installed on Ponsonby Rd which are currently in the early stages of design.

One will replace the existing notice board in Three Lamps and the other position is Anglesea Street.

There have been several instances of late where both the public and stakeholders have been abused / threatened / intimidated by certain individuals whilst on our streets.

I have recently spoken with some of you, as well as Matt Srhoj of the Ponsonby Community Policing Centre about these occurrences. This is not what we want on our streets so we need your help to deal with these people.

Any form of intimidation is an offence and must be dealt with immediately to give the Police more scope & authority.

Please contact Matt Sirhoj (Ph 3593102) immediately if you become victim to these offences….time is of the essence.

After some good heavy discussions and cracking of the whip Civic Contractors (Paul Sinden and his team) have picked up their game to get our streets sparkling clean.

Paul has the contract for inner Auckland over the next five years and has invested in state of the art machinery.

Improvements to Jervois & Redmond Rds now seem to be complete. 

I know that many of you were inconvenienced by the works & the traffic problems; but they have resulted in a much upgraded appearance and safer intersections.

I believe there are still a few minor tweaks to come with the phasing of the lights; these adjustments take time to get right apparently. 

All of your patience is greatly appreciated.