Crunch time looms as ARC must prove its worth to ratepayers

By ANNE BESTON

Like the country's other regional councils, Auckland Regional Council has struggled with a low profile among ratepayers confused about what it is and what it does.

But with its rates bills hitting Auckland letterboxes for the first time instead of being virtually hidden on other councils' bills which collected on its behalf, that looks set to change.

The 13-member ARC evolved from the old Auckland Regional Authority under the 1989 local government changes.

Covering the region from Wellsford to Mercer and managing the Hauraki Gulf, it promotes itself as Auckland's environmental guardian - protector of parks and champion of clean water and air, stuff everyone likes.

The council will spend its new $104 million rate-take on the 21 regional parks it manages, on subsidising buses, trains and ferries, on issuing resource consents required under the Resource Management Act for development, on policing those consents and prosecuting polluters, funding the Auckland harbourmaster including the oil spill team and killing pests on publicly owned land.

But crunch time appears to have arrived for the ARC. As the rates issue snowballs, the questions are becoming louder.