West's team spells out six-ward plan

The Waitakere City Council wants to rebuild the region's city and district councils in a new guise.

The council is proposing six wards for local government in Auckland, with boundaries similar to those of the four present city councils and the Rodney and Franklin district councils.

Councillors to the Super City council would be elected from the six wards, and local boards within each ward would be encouraged to join forces on big projects, such as the New Lynn transport and town centre plan.

This proposal is different to the Government's plans to replace the region's present councils with a Super Council and 20 to 30 local boards.

Asked if Waitakere was trying to rebuild the city and district councils, Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse said: "Yes and no."

She said the council supported strengthened regional governance, but saw some benefits in keeping a similar structure.

The Royal Commission on Auckland Governance had recognised the need to safeguard the communities of interest in Waitakere, Manukau and elsewhere rather than disembowel them immediately, she said.

Waitakere residents are keen to protect the west's eco-city identity - what Mayor Bob Harvey told the Auckland governance legislation committee yesterday was a "vision of environment and local identity".

Good cities, he said, needed at their core the belief of truth, honesty, great design and a richness of community: "This is the Waitakere way."

The council wants 12 to 20 local boards - renamed community councils - instead of up to 30 local boards, which it says would be too small and create "noise and clutter" at the regional level. Six service centres would be set up, one for each ward.

A telephone poll of 400 Waitakere residents, presented by the council yesterday, showed 86 per cent support for local boards being able to make important decisions and 78 per cent support for all the councillors on the Auckland Council to be elected from wards.

Henderson resident Anne Grace told MPs on the select committee that Waitakere leaders were acting out of self-interest, instead of seeking an efficient and cost-effective structure.

Select committee chairman and Associate Local Government Minister John Carter yesterday said the bill outlining the structure for Auckland governance was only a skeleton, and the next step was to put meat on the bones.

Today's hearings, at the Silver Oaks Quality Inn in Papatoetoe, begin at 9am and close at 9pm.

WHAT WEST BACKS
* Supports having a Super Mayor with limited executive powers, elected at large by single transferable vote (STV).
* Wants 20 councillors elected from six wards by STV, rather than a mix of at-large and ward councillors.
* Wants 12 to 20 local boards, renamed community councils, elected by STV and their powers enshrined in legislation.
* Supports separate Maori seats, but wants Government to decide method and numbers.