Unease in the neighbourhood

Warren Tuohey fears more bureacracy. Photo / Dean Purcell

Mike O'Neill and Warren Tuohey live at opposite ends of Auckland, but share a common concern about the Super City.

Come the changeover, they have little idea who they will be dealing with on projects dear to their hearts.

Both men are at the forefront to provide a better outcome for their communities.

For O'Neill, president of the local residents' association, it's an upgraded wastewater plant for Helensville and Parakai. For Tuohey, chairman of the Orakei Residents Society, it's the hotly debated development of the Orakei headland.

After years of waiting for the Rodney District Council to approve funding of $5 million to upgrade and expand the wastewater treatment plans so the townships can grow with a further 600 connections, O'Neill is concerned the project will stall under the Super City.

"We want to know where the buttons are and which to press. We don't even know what the powers of the so-called local board is going to be. We are in May and this is all going to happen in November.

And Tuohey is not relishing the thought of having to deal with an "extremely complex web" of organisations when the Super City comes into being.

It has been bad enough to-ing and fro-ing between politicians, bureaucrats and resource consent hearings without having to deal with a new set-up, including the mega-transport council-controlled organisation, he says.