Rural and urban divide

By Burnette O’Connor

This month I attended hearings, including the new forum format hearings, for the Auckland Spatial Plan. It was great to see many local people in attendance and I think the forum was a productive and proactive way to discuss a wide range of issues and topic areas of interest to, and affecting, rural communities.

During the summing up it was clear that there were a relatively small number of common themes arising from the forum discussions, with an overriding message being that rural communities are different to urban communities. Discussions around a compact city were inevitably linked with discussion related to transportation and rail links. If some of the rail link proposals occur within the inner city, rural ratepayers will likely be contributing to the development and operation of this infrastructure either through rates or tolls, along with the many infrastructure upgrades necessary to enable growth and development of rural communities. The establishment of funding priorities within both the rural and urban communities will be a juggling act for Council and will be an area where rural communities will need to ‘stand up and be counted’ to ensure that there is an equitable focus and distribution of funding.

It was interesting to note that many of our rural communities are not listed in Schedule 2 – of Chapter 7 of the Plan - Rural Settlements Classification. While it may not be possible to list every community, there needs to be an acknowledgment that there are a number of other rural settlements not listed, with the criteria for listing or not listing stated. Communities such as Tapora, Tomarata and Pakiri are not listed and Kaipara Flats is indicated as a village with “proposals for growth and development in various stages of planning and implementation, subject to infrastructure provision and other constraints”.

On a positive note, it was refreshing to hear favourable discussion on a range of environmental initiatives such as promoting mandatory rain water tanks throughout the region, developing our own local vernacular rather than adopting that of other countries, careful planning for pedestrian, cycle and vehicle networks with high levels of connectivity in both rural and urban areas.

Other issues related to the need to restrict growth in rural areas, the need for marine-based planning and the need for a fully integrated planning approach; which was an issue that I personally submitted on with respect to the integrated management of land areas and harbours such as Kaipara and Whangateau.

The Spatial Plan sets some high and inspiring targets to achieve that will benefit both rural and urban communities. However, the ‘devil will be in the detail’, as to how initiatives are planned and how they will be funded.

Published 1 December 2011