Councillors question ARC leadership

By ANNE BESTON and BERNARD ORSMAN

The leadership of Auckland Regional Council chairwoman Gwen Bull is being questioned after her handling of the growing rates revolt.

ARC councillors are publicly supportive of their besieged leader but are privately increasingly concerned the rates issue is getting out of hand.

North Shore councillor Ian Bradley said abusive telephone calls three nights ago almost reduced him to tears.

Several councillors are questioning Mrs Bull's ability to show strong leadership on rates and transport issues such as providing a decent train service for Britomart.

The Herald understands that first-term councillors Craig Little and Michael Barnett, who stood at the last election on the pro-business Advancing Auckland ticket, want to gain control of the council.

Mr Little, who unsuccessfully stood against Mrs Bull when former chairman Phil Warren died in January last year, yesterday refused to express confidence in Mrs Bull's ability to lead the council through the rating crisis.

City Vision councillor Mike Lee said Mrs Bull and the other six councillors who voted for the new rating system were impervious to community anger against rates increases of up to 600 per cent.

Mr Lee, one of five councillors to vote against the rating system, said Mrs Bull had been encouraged by support from business, farmers and the Act party. It was dumb politics, he said.

Mr Bradley said a public relations bill of $376,000 to sell the rates rise, "Obiviously hasn't worked, that much is clear".

Auckland City Mayor John Banks said Mrs Bull was out of her depth and drowning in a bureaucracy that got worse by the day.

"The ARC is completely driven from the office of the chief executive [Jo Brosnahan] and there is no political leadership on any single issue and no political accountability on any decision taken.

"They will be feeling the bitter-cold winds of reality with their completely over-the-top and outrageous rates increase," Mr Banks said.

Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey came to Mrs Bull's defence, saying she had shown "steel" over the past week: "Look at who else is there. I rest my case," Mr Harvey said.

Meanwhile, the Glenfield Ratepayers and Residents Association has launched a regionwide petition against the rates rises. Copies of the petition can be obtained from the association's chairman, David Thornton, at david@kandu.co.nz.

- Additional reporting Warren Gamble