Call to give local boards $100 million

Twenty or so local boards with budgets of $5 million each would pump $100 million a year into Auckland communities, says Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney.

"Talk about meaningful. Would you be voting for that baby?" the business leader told MPs yesterday.

Mr Swney said community boards now received about $400,000 to $500,000 from Auckland City Council to spend locally.

He floated the figure of $5 million to illustrate the difference that properly funded and empowered local boards would make to spark interest in Auckland communities.

Mr Swney was addressing the Auckland governance legislation select committee, which is hearing submissions on the Government's Super City plan for one super council and 20 to 30 local boards.

The committee completed four days of hearings in Auckland City yesterday. It moves to Silverdale today and Takapuna on Monday.

Mr Swney, whose organisation represents the central business district, also pushed the idea of targeted rates to galvanise communities.

He said the CBD had gone for a 12-year targeted rate to raise $200 million to ensure projects such as Queen St, Vulcan Lane and St Patrick's Square went ahead.

But some CBD residents believe the targeted rate is unfair because the improvements are commercially focused and they have to put up with badly maintained footpaths away from the main streets.

The issue of strengthening the power and functions of the 20 to 30 local boards once again dominated the hearings yesterday.

Friends of the Earth founder Denys Trussell said the Government was proposing a monolith.

He called for a minimum of 40 local boards to reflect the racial diversity of Auckland.

The National MP for Auckland Central, Nikki Kaye, said: "I think there should be more [local boards], rather than less."

Prime Minister John Key said this week that at the end of the select committee process, Aucklanders should expect to see increased powers for local boards that "reflect the diverse communities they serve".

The Mt Eden Planning Group yesterday called for services centres to be set up to serve one, two or three local boards with professional staff determining building and resource consents.

Responding to a question asked from Labour MP Phil Twyford, group spokesman and planner Bob Demler said somewhere like the new suburb of Flat Bush in Manukau had completely different planning requirements to the Waitakere Ranges.