Chris Darby is an

Auckland Council Auckland Council () is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that also has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a unitary authority, according to t ...

lor for the North Shore Ward. He is focused on public transport,

urban regeneration Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

and environmental issues. He is an independent who is not affiliated to any political party. He ran on his independent ticket 'Taking the Shore Forward' in the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

elections, and was elected each time.

Early political involvement

As a young man, Darby supported

Ngāti Whātua Ngāti Whātua is a Māori iwi (tribe) of the lower Northland Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island. It comprises a confederation of four hapū (subtribes) interconnected both by ancestry and by association over time: Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa ...

's occupation of

Bastion Point Takaparawhau / Bastion Point is a coastal piece of land in Ōrākei, Auckland, New Zealand, overlooking the Waitematā Harbour. The area is significant in New Zealand history as the site of protests in the late 1970s by Māori against forced ...

and was there on the day of the eviction on 25 May 1978. Before the "super city" merger of Auckland's councils into

in 2010, Darby served on the

North Shore City Council North Shore City was a territorial authority unit in the Auckland Region of New Zealand that was governed by the North Shore City Council. It existed from 1989 until November 2010, when the council was incorporated into Auckland Council. It ha ...

, being first elected in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Auckland Council

At the 2010 Auckland Council elections, Darby ran for the North Shore ward of Auckland Council for Shore Voice alongside

Ann Hartley Margaret Ann Hartley (née Thompson; 23 September 1942 – 20 December 2024) was a New Zealand politician. She was a New Zealand Labour Party, Labour member of parliament between 1999 and 2008, and served as the mayor of North Shore City from ...

, who was elected. Darby finished 6th and was not elected to the council, but was elected to the

Devonport-Takapuna Local Board The Devonport-Takapuna Local Board covers from Castor Bay and Sunnynook south to the end of the Devonport Peninsula; it is separated from the Kaipātiki board area by the Northern Motorway. This local board sits in the Auckland Council offic ...

for the 2010–2013 term. At the 2013 Auckland Council elections, Darby ran for Council again and was elected as a Councillor for the North Shore ward, polling higher than both incumbents, George Wood and Ann Hartley. Wood remained Co-Councillor with Darby, given the North Shore ward elects two Councillors, however Hartley lost her seat to Darby, with whom she had campaigned on the Shore Voice ticket in 2010. Darby served his first term on the council with George Wood. In the 2013–16 Auckland Council he was the Deputy Chair of the Auckland Development Committee and Infrastructure Committee, and is council's Political Urban Design Champion. Darby was re-elected at the 2016 Auckland elections, with Richard Hills elected to serve with Darby. The new mayor,

Phil Goff Philip Bruce Goff (born 22 June 1953) is a New Zealand retired politician and former diplomat. He was a member of the New Zealand Parliament from 1981 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 2016. He served as Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, le ...

, appointed Darby the Chairperson of the Planning Committee. At both the

and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

elections, Darby and Hills were re-elected.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darby, Chris Living people Auckland Councillors North Shore City Councillors 1950s births Year of birth missing (living people)