Board has say on 22/23 budget

Auckland Council plans to put household rubbish collection onto the rates are not proving popular with Rodney residents.

Half of the 438 people who submitted feedback on the proposal, which is included in Council’s proposed Annual Budget 2022/23, were against the idea and said they would prefer to keep the current pay-as-you-throw orange bag system.

Rodney Local Board members reviewed and responded to local submissions on the budget at an extraordinary meeting last month, and noted that 50 per cent of submitters were against rates-funded refuse collections, while 38 per cent supported the idea.

And although Council has flagged that Covid-19 impacts have put “significant pressure” on its financial position and budget plans, members also called for road sealing funding to be reinstated, together with adequate road maintenance budgets.

They voted to ask that the $66.7 million allocated for additional seal extensions across Auckland in the 2018-2028 Regional Land Transport Plan be reinstated into the current Regional Land Transport Plan. Members also want to see that money incorporated into the Committed and Essential Unsealed Road Improvements Programme Budget Priority line, and are asking for “sufficient funding for Auckland Transport to renew and maintain 12 per cent of Auckland’s roading network each year”.

The Local Board also requested that continued funding from the Natural Environment Targeted Rate and the Water Quality Targeted Rate would be allocated to projects in Rodney, and wanted increased funding and resources for compliance and monitoring across the region.

Members voted to support keeping the previously agreed general rates increase of 3.5 per cent for 2022/2023, and noted that while 56 per cent of submitters from Rodney supported Council’s proposal to introduce a new Climate Action Targeted Rate, with 38 per cent against, a poll last month found that 43 per cent of Rodney residents were not supportive of the proposed rate, with 31 per cent of respondents supporting the proposal.

Members also wanted more information on proposed spending cuts to ease budget pressures and the chance to provide their views before they were implemented.