Bids to secede from Auckland Council open floodgates for more applications
Monday, 13 June 2016
Two bids to break away from the super city have opened the door for all Aucklanders to have their say on a potential split.
Any disaffected Auckland communities wishing to go it alone and form their own councils now have until June 24 to apply to the Local Government Commission.
It follows applications from North Rodney, covering the rural area around the towns of Warkworth and Wellsford, and Waiheke Island to cut ties with Auckland Council.
The commission says the North Rodney and Waiheke bids affect all of Auckland, so anyone from Orewa to Pukekohe must also have the opportunity to make an application.
**READ MORE:
* Waiheke closer to break-away from Auckland
* Rodney split option would give area two councillors and two boards
* Rodney split: opening the floodgates on eroding Auckland's super city?
* Auckland breakaway group wins appeal**
Once the June 24 deadline passes, the commission begins the task of deciding whether the breakaway groups have the support and resources to stand on their own two feet.
However, the secession attempts have ignited debate as Auckland faces the vexed issue of how to pay for the infrastructure needed to cope with its rapid growth.
The city's population will hit 1.6 million in July, meaning it will have grown by the size of Tauranga in four years.
But the farmers of North Rodney say that is not their problem.
'I think a lot of people feel we've been swallowed up by Big Brother and that all the decisions are made with urban-type issues in mind,' Northern Action Group chairman Bill Townson said.
'I know a lot of the farmers are very upset by what's in [Auckland's proposed] Unitary Plan, because it's actually not conducive to good farming practice.'
John Meeuwsen, the spokesman for breakaway group Our Waiheke, says ratepayers on the island have not benefited from the amalgamation of the eight former Auckland councils into one local authority.
The island has different values and aspirations, and relatively little infrastructure compared with mainland Auckland, he said.
'There are 10 district councils in New Zealand with a population and number of rateable properties similar to Waiheke's … Our island is quite capable of self-governance in financial terms.'
Massey University local government expert Andy Asquith disagreed.
'It's completely ridiculous,' he said.
'If you think about the resource required, the expertise required to run an autonomous local body then it ain't going to happen on Waiheke.'
Rodney had never wanted to be part of the super city and had at one time considered merging with the nearby Kaipara District Council, he said.
Kaipara later ran into major problems over the cost of a wastewater project which blew out from $17m to $58m.
Similar problems were seen in other small local authorities, he said.
'Smaller councils can't afford to employ people of the right calibre and competence to deal with these big infrastructure projects,' he said.
The government had spent the last six years trying to get Auckland working because it understood how crucial its success was to the rest of New Zealand
'All of a sudden to break it up again is a recipe for disaster,' Asquith said.
So far the Rodney and Waiheke applications are the only ones it has received, commission chief executive Sandra Preston said.
However North Rodney's Townson has heard rumblings.
'There is unrest in a lot of areas around Auckland, so anything could happen,' he said.
Following the June 24 deadline the Local Government Commission would consider a range of things in deciding the merits of the devolution bids, Preston said: 'Whether there's enough community support, whether it improves economic performance and is cost effective, whether it will provide better quality or good quality infrastructure and services, and whether any proposed arrangement will have the necessary resources to be successful.'
IS THE SUPER CITY BREAKING UP?
What do North Rodney and Waiheke Island want?
Both communities have separately applied to the Local Government Commission to form their own Unitary Councils. A Unitary Council is a combination of a regional and a district council. If they are successful it means they will no longer be part of Auckland Council and will govern themselves.
How big are North Rodney and Waiheke?
North Rodney has 14,500 ratepayers and a population of 22,500. Waiheke Island has 8500 permanent residents, but around a third of its houses are owned by people who live in mainland Auckland so the total number of ratepayers is higher.
Why do other Aucklanders get a say if it's only these two communities wanting to break away?
Under the law the Local Government Commission has to make a call on who is affected by the devolution applications. It has decided that all of Auckland is affected. That means it has to consider any and all suggestions for changing local government in the region, including other secessionist bids.
Have any other groups applied to break away from Auckland Council?
Not so far, but North Rodney says it has heard other communities are interested. The deadline for applications is June 24.
How will Auckland be affected if the breakaways succeed?
Auckland Council has 500,000 ratepayers. If North Rodney and Waiheke break away it will lose around 25,000 of those, which means fewer people to pay for badly needed infrastructure.The council has also told the commission that devolution would affect its growth planning, its relationships with iwi and hapu across the region, and would delay the implementation of its $157m project to merge the IT systems of the eight old councils into one.
Will the bids succeed?
Commentators say it is unlikely because it would be very difficult for tiny local councils to come up with the funds to pay for the infrastructure they need. They also say the government has worked too hard on getting all of Auckland together to now allow a breakup. However, we probably won't know the outcome for a while. It took the commission three years to decide on the reorganisation of local government in Northland.