Rodney Ward - Penny Webster

A teacher by profession and a mother of four daughters, Penny Webster has worn many hats over the years. From her experience as a sharemilker, she went on to become the first woman president of Auckland Federated Farmers. This led to a term as an ACT list MP in Wellington. She won a seat on Rodney District Council in 2004 and became Mayor in 2007 – the first woman to hold the position. During the current term of Council she has chaired the Auckland Mayoral Forum and sat on a technical advisory board on Resource Management Act reforms.

Experience has taught Penny Webster that specific election promises aren’t worth making.

“What a lot of people who haven’t been in local government is don’t understand how restricted Councils are by Central Government legislation,” she says. “Councils work under the Local Government Act and what we do is governed by a raft of legislation, from the Building Act to the Resource Management Act. The new Auckland Council won’t mean a whole new ball game – there will be the same limitations.”

Instead of promises, Penny is committing to be a voice for Rodney and to achieve as much as she can within the frameworks that she is given.

While Penny’s opposition to Rodney joining the supercity is a matter of public record, she says it’s now time to move on.

“Rodney needs a credible and experienced voice on the new Council, which I have. I understand Rodney’s issues district-wide and through my involvement with Planning Rodney, the spatial plan and various structure plans I am pretty up with the play with what people want. The spatial plan, which will meld council plans across Auckland, will be very important and it will be important to ensure that Rodney is recognised and not just as Auckland’s playground.”

Penny says the four-lane motorway extension from Puhoi to Wellsford must go ahead, and Rodney’s tourism infrastructure such as roads, water, sewerage and signage must be adequately funded. The provision of a wastewater system for Riverhead/Kumeu/Huapai and Matakana will come under the Watercare Services CCO, which should provide economies of scale plus the efficiency of one consenting authority.

“But at the end of the day, all these things have to be paid for and that reality won’t go away. Presumably the rate take will be larger, but how it gets spent still hasn’t been determined.”

On the subject of Local Boards, Penny says although their role will be non-regulatory, their input into annual plans will be important and they will be the interface between Council and the community. It will also be vital that it meets regularly with the Ward Councillor.

“How successful this is will depend on how cohesive the Local Board is and who gets elected.”

Penny says the tensions between the western and eastern areas of Rodney, which have plagued the present Council, will also have to be addressed by the Local Board.

Reflecting on her term as Mayor, Penny says there has been a huge sea change within Council.

“We’ve become an enabling Council. There was a time when Rodney was quite well-known for causing delays and frustrations. There’s been a huge improvement, with 97 percent of building and resource consent applications now processed within statutory timeframes. We’ve gone from a culture of ‘how can I frustrate you’ to ‘how can I help you’.
There have also been improvements in the professionalism of resource management hearings.”

Penny says she also counts as an achievement the fact that she has been able to help many individuals in small ways with consent and Council issues.

She says she wasn’t comfortable with recent rate increases in Rodney, but the Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) had been pared back to absolute infrastructure and what needed to be done. She admits the rating system could have been improved and is disappointed that in terms of Rodney District, there won’t be an opportunity to see this job finished.

“It was very unfortunate that in our first year we were caught with new valuations just before the downturn and then this year, when we were due for a revaluation which would possibly have seen rates lowered, it was not allowed under the Tamaki Makaurau legislation.

“People are fairly cynical about local government and I don’t think they are expecting a huge drop in rates – the important thing will be to ensure that there is not a drop in services.”

Penny says the new Council will have to be pragmatic, not philosophical.

“If we’re not careful, we could see central government politics introduced into local government which is not good for Rodney. We see already Citizens & Ratepayers and City Vision setting up people throughout the region.”