Franklin starts ball rolling for exclusion from Super City

Franklin District Council will start proceedings today to be excluded from the Auckland Super City.

This followed a packed public meeting last night in the Pukekohe Town Hall, where Local Government Minister Rodney Hide got a blasting for including Franklin in the Super City.

All but two of the 400-plus locals passed a resolution deploring the lack of democracy shown in splitting Franklin between Auckland and Waikato.

Said Pukekohe resident Ross Miller: "To me, it's a very simply matter. What the people want, they should get."

The Government has set the boundary just south of Pukekohe, based on the water catchments for the Manukau Harbour and the Waikato River.

Speaker after speaker criticised Mr Hide for ignoring the wishes of the Franklin District Council, which wants to be a unitary authority outside the Super City.

Local polls have shown 90 per cent support for this proposition.

Mr Hide said it was not a case of him not listening, but following a process starting with the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance, followed by the Government's response through a parliamentary select committee process and Parliament.

He said the way for communities like Franklin to be represented was through the second tier of local boards under the Super City.

And if Franklin wanted to achieve unitary authority status, the way was to apply to the Local Government Commission.

The meeting passed a resolution to do this. Franklin Mayor Mark Ball said he would start the process today.

The meeting also heard from two community group representatives from Rodney who were angry with the Government for including all of their district in the Super City after an earlier proposal to merge the northern part with Kaipara District.

Gordon Levet, of the Wellsford Community Group, said there was "white hot fury" at the issue.

"Franklin and Rodney people are basically conservative people who support this Government. It is one thing to alienate your enemies. It is another to alienate your friends.

"This is a festering sore and it is not going to go away."

The royal commission set the southern boundary of the Super City at the Waikato River. It said the reason for the river boundary was the need to plan for growth in places such as Pokeno, which were more likely to rely on Auckland for employment and their economic well-being.

It would also avoid splitting communities of interest straddling the Bombay Hills.