Rates rise on back of $26,000 pay boost for chief

By ANNE BESTON and BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland Regional Council head Gwen Bull received a pay rise this month of more than $26,000 and her councillors are paid the highest meetings fee of any in the country.

While angry residents lay siege to the council over a hefty rates increase, Mrs Bull's salary as chairwoman jumped this month from $99,100 to $125,377.

Mrs Bull is also provided with a car for private use and, at 65, is entitled to national superannuation.

ARC councillors are paid a range of annual salaries depending on whether they chair committees, but their fee for attending meetings is $230, the highest of any council.

Ordinary councillors' annual salaries are $20,000, up $4000 on last year but low by comparison with other regional councils.

The rises are the result of the Higher Salaries Commission taking over the setting of local government pay.

Mayors and councillors may choose whether or not to take it.

Glenfield Ratepayers and Residents Association chairman and community board member David Thornton said the pay rises made a mockery of the rates increase.

"It is a little unfortunate they are getting these increases when they have just created the biggest uproar in local government for many a year," he said.

But although one Auckland mayor has lambasted the council over the rates, Auckland Central MP and Minister for Auckland Issues Judith Tizard defended the increase.

She said that although no one wanted to pay more in rates, the council was trying to be fair in paying for a transport system that people had asked for.

"Nobody is happy with the rates going up, but then nobody is happy with the level of services Auckland has anyway," she said.

Rodney District Mayor John Law is threatening to break the district away from the ARC and run its own transport, environmental and planning services.

He accused the regional council of ignoring the majority view of 600 public submissions on the rates rise, including his own view that the transport levy was unacceptable to people in Rodney.

"I don't believe the people were listened to at all," he said.

He had been inundated by angry ratepayers who want the region of 81,000 people to break ties with the ARC and form a unitary authority.

"Rodney district have not benefited at all in the new bus initiatives with super busways for the North Shore or any rail initiatives, we haven't got a single rail sleeper in Rodney. Yet, because we are in the Auckland region, the ARC will rate us for everything."

Orewa Ratepayers Association president John Drury said his phone began ringing yesterday at 7am and did not stop.

The response to a petition that began circulating yesterday had been "incredible".

Mr Law said the council asked officers last month for a report, due early next year, on the pros and cons of setting up a unitary authority, including the extra costs. Gisborne, Nelson and Marlborough operate unitary councils.