KEY POINTS:
Rodney Mayor Penny Webster says she is shocked that a neighbouring council is trying to pinch its treasures, such as the Muriwai gannet colony, in the name of local government reform.
But Waitakere City Council says it is only trying to survive annihilation by the plan of its big sister, Auckland City, to lump the region's local councils into one super city.
Waitakere confirmed on Friday that it will ask the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance for control of Rodney's western ward.
The aim is to beef up Waitakere by gaining potential growth spots Kumeu, Huapai and Helensville as well as Auckland City's Avondale ward.
Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey calls it "place shaping". But the theory did not wash with Mrs Webster and her deputy, John Kirikiri, when they met Waitakere counterparts on Friday.
Mrs Webster said she was perturbed to hear that Mr Harvey and North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams held a joint media conference to announce that their submissions to the inquiry were on similar lines.
"I thought we were partners in the North-West Auckland Growth Sector, working together," said Mrs Webster.
"Whether it's just boys playing games I don't know. But Rodney has decided the important issue is not about what the boundaries should be but about the communities ... what the people of Helensville want. And they tell me, `Don't carve us up'."
Mrs Webster said the opportunity to reform local government should be about ratepayers and delivery of services.
Rodney council would fight Waitakere's bid to extend into the Kaipara Harbour region because the residents there were divided among too many local authorities already.
One of them - the Auckland Regional Council - should be abolished and infrastructure and water services put in the hands of a public company, said Mrs Webster.
Mr Harvey said Waitakere's plan was well considered and he apologised if its desire to take a slice of Rodney had caused offence.
"We are considering our survival. We are being pressed to survive. Auckland City will engulf us in their ambitious plans for the region."
Later, he told the Herald: "It's a shame that much of the debate has centred on boundaries. It's perhaps inevitable but we must not lose sight of the main focus of Waitakere's submission, which is around functions rather than structures."
Mr Harvey said that by "place shaping", the council meant aligning communities of interest, natural catchments and growth nodes and developing them on the principles of sustainability.
Its wish to have a change to four cities only, with territories rejigged to give each roughly the same population, would make them efficient and connected to communities.
Meanwhile, Orewa residents were urged yesterday to back a move to dump Rodney council and come under the wing of North Shore City.
Former mayoral candidate Larry Mitchell told a public meeting in the coastal suburb that the royal commission was a rare opportunity for residents of urban Orewa and the Hibiscus Coast to seek change, instead of feeling powerless and frustrated.
"This council is stuffed," said Mr Mitchell, "and it's time we got democracy working."
