KEY POINTS:
1. Strengthened Regional Council
The Greater Auckland Council will continue to be a regional council under the Local Government Act 2002, with the statutory purpose of promoting the current and future social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of the communities of its region.
* It will carry out functions of the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) * Negotiate agreements with central government on regional priorities * Adopt the One Plan for the Auckland region and implement One Plan decisions for which it has direct responsibility
* Facilitate agreements for funding and implementing of One Plan decisions agreed to by other parties to One Plan
It will look after
* Regional economic development; tourism promotion and regionally significant (major) events management
* Facilities and amenities that contribute to regional community well-being, including the funding of services provided by regional organisations
Leader
* The elected members of Greater Auckland will appoint one of their number as chair.
Membership
* Initial membership will, as determined for the 2007 ARC elections, consist of 13 elected representatives, elected from six constituencies, aligned with the territorial authority boundaries inside the Auckland region.
2. Regional Sustainable Development Forum
* The forum will develop and recommend the One Plan for adoption by Greater Auckland.
* The forum will be constituted as a standing committee of Greater Auckland.
* It will have one member from each district council, two each from city councils and four from the regional council. * The city councils would have eight of the 15 votes.
Central Government
* It is proposed that the Central Government will contribute to the forum. Central Government would have up to three representatives with the right to speak but no voting rights.
Mana Whenua
* It is proposed that Mana Whenua representative(s) will be participants in the forum.
Decision Making * It is proposed that the forum will make decisions by consensus. If that is not possible, decisions will be by simple majority vote of those present and voting.
* The chair of the forum will be appointed by Greater Auckland.
3. One Plan
Purpose* One Plan for Auckland will promote social, economic, cultural and environmental well-being through prioritised action plans.
* It will include a prioritised set of projects/programmes of regional significance and funding and implementation parameters.
* The Plan will comprise a prioritised set of projects/programmes of regionally significant scale.
* It is likely that the projects and plans will cover a period of committed implementation of up to 10 years.
* Greater Auckland, as guardian of the One Plan, will be responsible for facilitating contracts between other parties to the One Plan as necessary, and will negotiate funding and implementation agreements with central Government.
* All councils will be required to take account of One Plan decisions in their own strategic planning documents and decision-making processes.
Sanctions/Levers* One Plan commitments will be required to be shown in councils long-term council community plans
* Councils will be required to publicly report progress towards meeting those commitments.
Incentives and sanctions
* These could include moral persuasion; peer pressure, financial penalties; exclusion from benefits of participation in other regional programmes; mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability.
4. Work Streams
* The Three Waters strategy will continue to achieve alignment between the planning, funding and delivery of water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure and services.
* The Auckland Regional Land Transport Strategy will include major projects and priorities.
* Greater Auckland assumes ownership and/or funding responsibility for existing regional facilities like the Auckland War Memorial and Transport Museums.
* Agreement on funding will need to be reached by the councils not later than January 31, 2008, to enable legislation, if required, to be enacted in time for transfers to take effect from July 1, 2008.
