I walk around the North Shore beaches quite a lot, and I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed the proliferation of signs that have appeared regarding dog access and hours of activities, stating the summer hours of walking your dog and the winter hours of walking your dog, and whether they have to be on a leash or not, and when, of course, you are not allowed to have them there at all.  All put there by our lovely Auckland Council. These are not small and subtle signs, these are signs that tower some 2.5 metres high and they are at every beach, some only 100 metres apart. They are an absolute eyesore, and I feel like chain sawing them off at the base and carting them away.

Perhaps this is a time for a bit of civil disobedience, taking the matter into our own hands and chain sawing down all these newly erected signs. I hate to think how much this has cost the ratepayer for all this nonsensical activity. And, I’m not even a dog owner. 

The next thing we will see will be replicate signs in Mandarin, Korean, Arabic and a barrage of other languages, all side by side and blocking out the view of the beach. Just imagine that. Bloody madness.

It’s going to be very interesting to see who we will be lumbered with for the extremely safe blue seat of North Shore for the upcoming election. As you will well remember, I was not happy years ago with the parachuting in of a non-North Shore resident for this seat. I do hope this time, the candidate will be a North Shore person who understands the electorate. To me, it is vitally important to have someone who is well aware of the issues that all of us here on the Shore face, and is a strong voice in Parliament to get things done.

Has anyone noticed there seem to be more and more cars on the streets and parked on verges, parked anywhere. In a few years time, our streets will just become a giant car park, as Devonport is on weekdays when people drive down to catch the ferry into the city.

Did I get something wrong last month, or did our Prime Minister Ms Ardern just go missing when Southland experienced some of worst flooding ever, in the southern region of the South Island. Our Prime Minister was swanning around for days at Waitangi, rubbing noses and cooking bacon and eggs. From there, she went to the Big Gay Out, not even once thinking she should go down to Southland and hug a few people. Oh, well maybe it’s because they’re not really Labour voters down there?

I see there is going to be a full-scale America’s Cup programme for Devonport, for which they say there is a series of 'world class' events planned. The Devonport Business Association has confirmed a contract with Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development, and it is understood the budget is between $500,000 and $1m for these events. People are very excited about this. I’d like to know what they are planning to spend half a million to a million dollars of ratepayer’s money on? They say that the Devonport Business Association needs to walk a fine line between providing the world class programme that ATEED is aiming for and events that will benefit the Devonport businesses.

My recommendation to the Devonport businesses and to the restaurants especially, is to up their game a bit. A good friend of mine recently took his family and American guests into a certain establishment in Devonport. On asking how their evening was, the reply was “The service was crap and the food was worse”. They were served glasses of warmish water at their table, no ice and nothing else but warm tap water. The American guest asked if there was a shortage of ice in New Zealand. 

The main street of Devonport is looking scruffy, the paths need a good clean and rubbish collected, and the planter boxes need watering and tidying. The Devonport Business Association needs to have a good look and see what can be done to present the face of the North Shore to visitors. 

That’s it for another month, let’s all keep our wits about us so that the ever-encroaching limitations on our day-to-day lives are noticed and we voice our objections.