Quality of Council reports questioned

Errors in a report into current and potential gaps in the provision of council facilities have raised eyebrows around the quality of reports across Auckland.

Auckland Council’s Parks, Arts, Community and Events Committee deferred endorsement of the Millwater and Silverdale Community Provision Investigation after the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board raised issues with the report.

Community provision investigations have been carried out across Auckland to assess whether there are enough facilities, such as libraries or leisure centres, for the communities depending on a range of criteria including demand, catchment size and weather it is a local board priority.

However, the accuracy of these reports was questioned at the meeting.

There were concerns that non-Council owned facilities had been included, as well as schools that did not allow public access outside of school hours. Hibiscus and Bays Board member Victoria Short was also concerned that the report did not consider future development.

Community and Social Policy general manager Kataraina Maki said a desktop research approach was done, which did not engage with the community or facilities outside of Council ownership.

“The same level of effort was applied consistently across community provision investigations,” Maki said.

She acknowledged that there were data limitations with this approach.

“We identify areas that are already developed, not areas that are going to be developed,” Maki said.

“Staff are looking to see if the community facilities plan is fit for purpose.”

Maki said issues surrounding the plan were expected to be brought back to committee after the local elections.

Cr Richard Hills looked at community facilities in Waitakere, which provided for 300,000 people, well above the intended 40,000 residents.

“Is this about making sure we don’t make the same mistakes?” Hills said.

He felt that mistakes in the Hibiscus report could be Auckland-wide.

Cr Angela Dalton said she sometimes felt like she was not even reading about her own community in the reports.

“There are assumptions on provision particularly when it comes to school facilities. We can not rely on assumptions,” Dalton said.

Cr Linda Cooper pushed back on claims that the reports were flawed.

“I feel like this has been rejected out of hand because the answer was not what people wanted to hear,” Cooper said.

Cr John Watson welcomed the revisiting of this investigation.

“Surely if you are going to make decisions in any area, you want to make sure you have accurate information,” Watson said.

Cr Daniel Newman said he was nervous about Council’s direction with desktop analysis. He wanted to see Council staff conducting better research.

Independent Maori Statutory Board Members, Tony Kake and Glenn Wilcox, voted against the item because of the use of the name Millwater instead of the reo name Wainui.