KEY POINTS:
Why should a successful rural council like Franklin have to change because its urban cousins cannot sort out their own problems?
The question was put to the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance by former Franklin District councillor Ian Barton on Friday.
Mr Barton was part of a procession of local residents and organisations who urged the commission to maintain the Franklin rural way of life.
Over two days of public hearings in Pukekohe, speaker after speaker spoke about preserving local democracy and the character of the rural district.
But when it came to whether Franklin should remain a standalone council or nail its colours to Auckland or Waikato, submitters were divided.
Different views emerged on the merits of the Auckland Regional Council and Environment Waikato, the bodies sharing Franklin for regional council purposes.
Auckland's southern boundary has been uppermost in the first two days of public hearings by the commission, chaired by retired High Court judge Peter Salmon, QC. Changes to Auckland's boundary are included in the commission's terms of reference.
Franklin District Council wants to leave metropolitan Auckland and become part of rural-focused Waikato.
But Alan Wilcox said this was an attempt at self-preservation. Franklin was effectively two different areas; a rural lifestyle area in the north under the Auckland Regional Council and a viable farming community in the south under Environment Waikato.
Another former Franklin District councillor, Lucille Rutherford, said the Auckland Regional Council was best able to protect the rural lifestyle from urban expansion and greedy developers: "I don't think Environment Waikato are up to the play."
But Kevan Moore, of the Buckland Community Centre, a group of 1000 residents in the Waikato area of the district, said there was a very strong feeling against the Auckland Regional Council at a public meeting to discuss the royal commission.
Franklin council employee Elizabeth Kirkby-McLeod, who commutes to work from Greenlane, said bigger was not better. "The closer the people who make the decisions can be to residents the better." John Oliver moved to a 4ha lifestyle block at Onewhero in Franklin seven years ago from Mt Eden. He said the last shake-up of local government in 1989 was meant to make things better, but the personal service of the old Mt Eden Borough Council had been replaced by a council that "did not want to know you".
He now enjoyed living in a friendly area with a council that offered a personal service. "I would prefer to see Franklin stand alone and not be part of Auckland," Mr Oliver said.
The commission holds public hearings in Papakura at the Accent Point Shopping Centre today and tomorrow, followed by hearings in Rodney.
www.royalcommission.co.nz
