Glen Innes, New Zealand


Glen Innes is a suburb in East Auckland, New Zealand, located nine kilometres to the east of the city centre, close to the waters of the Tamaki River estuary.
Glen Innes gets its name from a large farm owned by William Innes Taylor that was here. There were four Taylor brothers in Auckland, the sons of a British man who had had a military career in India. Three of the brothers had farms in this area and built houses; William Innes Taylor at Glen Innes, Richard James Taylor at Glendowie and Charles John Taylor at Glen Orchard. Their brother Allan Kerr Taylor had a farm estate in Mount Albert, whose house was called Alberton.
The main streets in Glen Innes are Taniwha Street and Apirana Avenue, which meet in the shopping centre of the suburb. Glen Innes has a train station on the Eastern Line of the Auckland rail network, and is a hub for eastern Auckland isthmus buses.
Glen Innes has for the most part been a low-income, working class area with around 1,500 state houses. In an effort to improve the quality of state housing in Glen Innes, the Government introduced "Talbot Park", an area of higher density housing, consisting of mostly apartment-style places.

Redevelopment conflict

There have been protests in Glen Innes over proposals to redevelop existing state-owned housing. Housing New Zealand plans to replace houses on large sections with more "intensive development" , including many conversions to privately owned and sold housing with profits going to developers such as property mogul, Murdoch Dryden . This involves removing tenants from properties some have lived in for long periods. There has been a number of reported deaths of elderly tenants from during the relocation process . Many protests have resulted in arrests of demonstrators, including Mana Party MP Hone Harawira on one occasion, as well as a number of reported police brutality cases. Housing New Zealand argues that the development will "make better use of land" and enable the provision of higher quality homes to their tenants, however community members argue it is a gentrification process which is tearing apart their community.

Notable people