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About a quarter of Far North District Council staff will be relocated from Kaikohe to Kerikeri and Kaitaia under a plan Mayor Wayne Brown says will make life easier for most ratepayers.
But Kaikohe's business association calls it a blow to the town, which has steadily been losing jobs and services to boom-town Kerikeri.
Mr Brown wants the council's planning and building department to be based in the two centres, where most development is taking place.
At present, anyone wanting a building or resource consent has to travel to Kaikohe if they need to meet council staff.
The move could mean up to 50 of the 200 staff based in the Kaikohe office would move.
Mr Brown signalled his intent to relocate the department during his election campaign and has asked the council's chief executive, Clive Manley, to make the move as quickly as possible.
Some people in the Hokianga might be inconvenienced, the mayor said, but the move would benefit most ratepayers.
But Kaikohe Business Association secretary Don Edmonds said the shift would be a blow to Kaikohe and other western settlements.
At present, the department was centrally located for everyone in the district.
"Losing 50 workers out of Kaikohe will have a bigger effect than bringing 50 into Kerikeri."
Mr Edmonds said he was concerned that the shift was the first in a grander plan to shift the entire council to Kerikeri.
But Far North Deputy Mayor Sally Macauley, who lives in Kaikohe, said she had been assured that only the planning and building department would be moved.
- NORTHERN ADVOCATE
