Auckland Mayor Len Brown opposes a plan to stop councillors serving as board members on Auckland Transport.

Country should ponder new funding solutions such as paying coal and gas royalties to cash-strapped councils, local government bosses say.

EXCLUSIVE: Auckland bureaucrats have come up with a plan to dump councillors from sitting on the board of Auckland Transport.

Len Brown and his wife Shan Inglis have sold their big South Auckland home and are now getting first-hand knowledge of the city's pressure-cooker house market.

In part four of the Herald series on how to make Auckland better, we look at the pros and cons of health-care in New Zealand's biggest city.

In the third of our five-part Future Auckland series, we aim to stimulate debate.

The Herald understands Len Brown has the backing of his wife and has told his inner circle he wants to run again for the mayoralty, but may not have enough support.

This week the Herald looks at what Auckland needs to make it an even better place to live. Today we focus on its transport woes, and how to solve them.

If this lack of regard for the financial resources of individual members of our community is to be curbed, it is critical that a strong message of opposition comes through from the community, writes George Wood, Dick Quax and Cameron Brewer.

'That's ratepayer money, it's just unbelievable'. Last week Tauranga City Council put in a $64k traffic island. This week it ripped it up.

Aucklanders have spent many, many years admiring what other cities have, but we're catching up now, writes Auckland Mayor Len Brown. There's a real sense of pride growing around our region.

Just because pohutukawa trees prosper in Auckland's coastal setting is not a reason to treat them as a weed and hack them down when they get in the way of a road builder.

Aucklanders have seven weeks to provide feedback on a draft 10-year budget that, according to Mayor Len Brown, includes some of the biggest decisions on the city's future. Send us Your Views.

While four million visitors enjoy the park each year, not one cent of the costs comes from rates or taxes, writes Michael Ayrton. That is thanks to the magnificent bequest of the "Father" of the city.

Got a problem? Then blame it on the Resource Management Act, writes John Armstrong. "Nick Smith is using the RMA as a smokescreen. The Auckland housing crisis is really a crisis of insatiable demand."

Auckland Council paid out $405,000 settling and defending personal grievances in the past year.

Claims that the high-profile pest control campaign "Battle For Our Birds" wiped out a group of nationally endangered birds are unfounded, the Department of Conservation says.

Motorists have forked out more than $100 million in parking and vehicle fines from Auckland Transport over four years - and owe plenty more.

A resource consent bid for a chicken egg layer farm of 310,000 birds in rural south Auckland has been rejected, because of fears it would be too stinky.

After slugging motorists with almost $10 million in bus lane fines since its formation in 2010, Auckland Transport says its enforcement efforts appear to be succeeding.

Housing crisis - what housing crisis? Drive around Auckland's outskirts and you'd be forgiven for thinking the home building sector was ahead of the game as thousands of new-builds come on....

Responses that promise an immediate and apparently ready-made solution to a problem have a seductive appeal.

Losers dominated the year in New Zealand politics, while winners were few and far between, writes Bryce Edwards.

It was the year of the trier, a year when optimists who thought the worst of the bad times had passed and only sunshine lay ahead fell flat on their faces.

After a political year full of controversy over Nicky Hager's Dirty Politics revelations, the debates still won't go away, writes Bryce Edwards.

Plans to raise household rates in Auckland by 5.6 per cent next year and 4.5 per cent a year thereafter are due to approved for public consultation today.

An Auckland Council IT project originally budgeted to cost $71 million should be delivered for the new cost of $172 million, says a senior council executive.

Britomart has gone from decay to super cool, churning over $1.3 billion a year to the Auckland economy, says a book tracing the first 10 years of the redevelopment.