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An opportunity for appeals and objections on subdivision boundary changes in the Rodney Local Board area will open on October 3, following a decision by Auckland Council to accept the recommendations of its Joint Governance Working Party last week.
In a somewhat convoluted process that started in July, council is looking to implement a fairer representation across Rodney by expanding the number of subdivisions from four to five.
Instead of Wellsford (one elected representative), Warkworth (three reps), Kumeū (four reps) and Dairy Flat (one rep), the proposed new subdivisions are Northern Rodney, which is an expanded area based on Wellsford with two representatives, a smaller Warkworth subdivision with two reps, Dairy Flat (one rep), Kumeū (two reps) and Southern Kaipara (two reps). The names Northern Rodney and Southern Kaipara replace North and South Rural, following public feedback.
The appeals period will close on November 3 when council’s final decision will be forwarded to the Local Government Commission for a hearing in February, with a final decision due by April 11. Any new boundaries will be in place for the local government elections in October next year.
Council’s Governing Body was told that the new subdivision arrangement would enhance rural representation and spread representation more evenly on a population/member ratio.
Rodney Ward councillor Greg Sayers said he was getting a lot of lobbying from different sectors regarding the 76 per cent of Rodney submitters who didn’t support the changes.
In response, governance principal advisor Warwick McNaughton said there had been 221 individual responses.
“When you look at the submissions opposed, the majority fall into two camps – one was about the Kaukakapapa area, which has been addressed in part,” he said. “The other camp was to do with Warkworth.
“The nature of the opposition was that they didn’t want to lose representation with a reduction in members from three to two.
“We were getting the message that they thought that the more representatives they had on the board, the more they would be likely to get decisions in their favour.
“I was at pains to point out that the electoral boundaries, wards and subdivisions are a way of spreading representation around. Once elected, members make a declaration to act in the interests of, in this case, the whole of Rodney. The number of members on the local board should not affect whether they get resources or not.”
