Good Citizen Award
brings with him the passion, of a now, fulltime, walking advocate. He lives by his values and has chosen workplaces and homes over the last 15 years that has allowed him to walk between them. This created an interest in all things to do with urban walking which saw Andy join Living Streets Aotearoa and then become its president. Living Streets Aotearoa is New Zealand’s primary advocacy organisation for pedestrians, representing the rights of those who walk, and helping to develop walking-friendly communities as well as promoting the many benefits of walking. Andy has also been the president of Walk Auckland, a charity that stands up for pedestrians, to create safe, attractive, enjoyable streets where it’s great to walk for a number of years. Under Andy’s leadership of Walk Auckland, he played an instrumental part in achieving the reduction of the speed limit along Ponsonby Road to 40km which was no mean feat.
When the idea of building a walkway and cycleway over the Harbour Bridge was first floated Andy immediately saw the benefits and rolled up his sleeves to help turn the dream into a reality as a trustee of Skypath. With Andy’s help, since 2009, this important and complex project is being brought closer to realisation.
Not content with just walking and cycling, Andy has been a Morris dancer since the 1980s, and his group, the City of Auckland Morris Dancers, has been seen and heard, bringing our streets alive, in Aotea Square, on the Auckland Art Gallery forecourt and other sites within Waitemata.
Andy is also currently the treasurer and dance programme coordinator of the annual Auckland Folk Festival.
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