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Rodney councillor Greg Sayers is appealing to the Rodney Local Board to withdraw its planned targeted rate to fix Rodney’s Transport woes after what he says is poor public support for the proposal.
Forty-three per cent of public submissions on the proposal were against it, with 36 per cent in support.
However, 21 per cent of submitters partially support the proposal.
A council report to the Rodney Local Board analysing the figures says the combination of support and partial support therefore amounts to 57 per cent.
However, Mr Sayers says it is wrong to assume this level of support for the proposal, since much of the partial support was conditional on exactly how the money is spent.
Conditions included specifying where in the Rodney area money would be spent or whether it should be spent on roads or public transport.
Given the inability to satisfy differing conditions, most responses should be counted as not in support.
“Put simply, people don’t want to be locked into paying an additional Rodney Local Board tax of 7.3 per cent extra each year and every year for the next ten years, when the rest of Auckland gets their basic Council services as part of their normal rates,” Cr Sayers says.
The Rodney Local Board will consider the targeted rate at a business meeting on May 24.
Board chair Beth Houlbrooke says board members will be keeping an open mind on the targeted rate until they get to the meeting and have had a chance to review all the available information.
