Capital super-city 'gamble' urged

Sustainable Wairarapa meeting on super-city with guest speakers Greg Moyle, left, Waitemata Local Board member, and Sir Bob Harvey, former mayor of Waitakere City.

The secret to Wairarapa's future could be to steer itself in the direction of Wellington and not simply remain on its own on the "other side of the hill," a near full house heard at a public meeting in Masterton on Tuesday.

Sir Bob Harvey, one of two Auckland local body politicians invited to speak at the meeting organised by Sustainable Wairarapa, told 220 people in the Masterton Town Hall he and Greg Moyle were not in town to tell Wairarapa must be done.

He said he "wouldn't dream of doing that" but Wairarapa people should consider the benefits that could accrue from "going forward with Wellington."

Auckland super-city was working well, Sir Bob said, especially for those areas away from the central city who had been the most sceptical when the "Auckland experiment" took shape.

As the long-standing mayor of Waitakere City when councils were trimmed back dramatically by amalgamation, Sir Bob said he at first had been grief-stricken at the thought of losing what had been an award-winning council.

" Waitakere was a triumph of how a community could work together. It was hard, very hard," he said.

Sir Bob said when he first realised Waitakere was not going to last the distance he led " a bit of a revolt."

" I got together with Manukau mayor Barry Curtis. We thought we would divide Auckland up. He would take half and I would get the other half but that was never going to work.

"Then the battle to set up a super city began.

"I had some real doubts about it but now, in its fourth year, I have to say the super city has actually worked very well.

"Auckland has never looked better. It's cleaner than it has ever been," he said.

Sir Bob said the recommendation for setting up a super city for the Wellington region looked to be "a little different" from the Auckland model but the concept was the same.

"In a way Wairarapa is being asked to take a chance, but it is not a lottery.

"I think Wellington will have to do it as it has rapidly lost its mojo.

"The two areas of the country with the potential to be powerhouses are Christchurch and Auckland, Wellington is fragmented and being squeezed.

"It needs to get back to being strong so it can join the other two to become a third powerhouse," he said.

The Rimutaka Hill, he said, was a very effective Chinese wall and the secret to future success could be to continue to look in the direction of Wellington and not sit it out alone.

Mr Moyle, a former policeman and successful businessman, spoke of his work on the Waitemata local board.

In its first term the Waitemata board had many challenges looking after twice as many people as the Wairarapa has and a daily influx of 130,000 others either as visitors, workers coming into the area or students.

"But this time round it is working a lot better.

"Things are constantly improving and the next term I believe will be even better than this one."

The board held monthly meetings with a public forum and enjoys a "huge amount of community involvement".

He said boards were quite capable of "getting things done and making a difference to their area.

"It may be a super city concept but really local boards make a lot of decisions, they are able to improve services."

Mr Moyle said under a Wellington super city Wairarapa would have a 10-member board looking after a small population but a large territory.

The Masterton meeting was chaired by former mayor Bob Francis who allowed a brief question and answer session.

Among questions was one from Auckland activist Penny Bright who is adamantly anti-super-city.

She asked Sir Bob whether it was true that the push for super-city proposals was tied to which companies were able to secure bigger and bigger contracts.

Sir Bob answered that he had no seen any evidence of corruption in the Auckland model and that Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) were not linked to big business.