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Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s desire to overhaul local boards across the city could see the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board amalgamate with its Upper Harbour counterpart, an outcome some feel may dilute local representation for the Hibiscus Coast.
An Auckland Council meeting on December 14 heard several options put forward by council’s Joint Governance Working Party (JGWP), including one that would see the number of local boards reduced from the current 21 to 15.
The option would affect those areas where more than one local board operates within the boundaries of a single council ward. Since the Hibiscus and Bays and Upper Harbour local board areas both fall within the Albany ward, the proposal if carried through would see the two local boards essentially merged into one. The same would apply to Devonport-Takapuna and Kaipātiki, among others.
Council adopted a motion tasking the JGWP to continue developing a draft reorganisation plan, based on the 15 local board option versus the status quo.
The reorganisation plan is a separate exercise to a parallel review of representation arrangements which the council is required by law to carry out for the 2025 elections.
Mayor Brown has argued that fewer local boards would enable staff and financial resources to be better spread across the city.
Hibiscus and Bays Local Board chairman Gary Brown said the option under consideration would mean the new-look local board would have its base and meetings in Albany. This may discourage people from traveling to meetings to make presentations, he said – although presentations can be made virtually as well.
(The local board has been meeting in Browns Bay since last August, following the closure of the Ōrewa Service Centre on Centreway Road. The planned refurbishment of the Ōrewa library is intended to include a space for its meetings, which would enable the board to meet alternately in Browns Bay and Ōrewa.)
The amalgamation proposal would also have an impact on representation, Brown said.
A new combined board would have 12 members, six from Upper Harbour and six from Hibiscus and Bays. Of the latter, three would be from the Hibiscus Coast and three from East Coast Bays. In contrast, the current local board comprises eight members, four representing the Coast and four representing the Bays.
Brown wondered whether three board members would be enough to represent the Coast.
As part of the proposed restructuring, the mayor is keen on giving local boards more money and more powers. Gary Brown wondered how that would be managed, if boards have fewer members.
At workshops he has attended on the reorganisation proposals, Brown said it’s been suggested that local board posts could become full-time.
Currently only the chair holds a fulltime, paid position. Brown said many people are now able to fit being a local board member alongside their other jobs. He argued that making all posts full-time could negatively affect the diversity of representation.
Council spokesperson Jo Davidson said engagement with stakeholders on the impacts of the potential changes will begin in mid-February. The JGWP will report back to the governing body in May, “for a decision on whether to proceed with formal consultation on local board reorganisation or to remain with the status quo”.
The separate representation review will proceed regardless of a decision on the reorganisation plan, she said. Council expects consultation on both processes to take place by mid-year, so that any changes decided upon can be implemented in time for the 2025 election.
The Hibiscus and Bays local board area stretches from Waiwera to Campbells Bay, and across the Whangaparāoa peninsula out to Tiritiri Matangi island. The Upper Harbour local board area includes Whenuapai, Herald Island and Hobsonville and West Harbour in the west, and Paremoremo, Greenhithe, Albany, Rosedale, Northcross, Unsworth and Pinehill in the east. In the 2018 census, the Hibiscus and Bays area population was 104,010 (representing 6.6 percent of the Auckland population), up 15.8 percent since the 2013 census. The Upper Harbour area population in 2018 was 62,841 (representing 4.0 percent of the Auckland population), up 17.1 percent since the 2013 census.
