Viewpoint – Is the system broken?

By Steven Garner

Local body politics can be boring but at some time most people will have issues that they believe that local government should be helping with or sorting out. Local government in Auckland is more convoluted than most. The office of the Mayor, the Council (Mayor and Councillors) and the Local Boards all have different responsibilities, authority and budgets. The Local Boards are arguably the most visible and publicly available. Few people probably realise that the amount of your rates that the Rodney Local Board spends or has responsibility for is only about 1% of the total amount of Council spending. We advocate for this money to be spent in the most responsible and efficient way possible but we are compelled to use the processes and personnel used for the other 99%.

There is ongoing criticism of Council around the fact that items it procures regularly cost 50-100% more than what someone in the private sector might be prepared to pay. This is wrong, frustrating, and needs to change. Our Councillor has been very well placed to help address this but, to date, things appear to be getting worse rather than better! It would be great to see this change.

Warkworth township is going through some major changes at present with the development on the site of the Warkworth hotel, the Grange development and significant subdivision activity around McKinney Road, View Road, Campbells Drive and Woodcocks Road areas. I am also aware of developers in the area, formerly identified within the Rodney District Plan, who are applying for resource consents for other significant subdivisions. Our town is growing and fast. The issues around traffic movement north and south (Mansel Drive Bridge), west and east (both the Alnwick Street connection and more importantly Hill Street) must be addressed. Both Auckland Transport (AT) and the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) continue to speak with the Local Board, the Warkworth Area Liaison Group and one or two interested parties but it is infuriating that not enough is being done. We, in the north, are short-changed with regard to investment by both the NZTA and AT in transport.

The latest bombshell is that it appears likely that, given the current funding restraints on AT, a bus service to connect Warkworth with the park and ride at Silverdale is unlikely to be supported at this time. I was under the impression that the recent AT consultation and discussion was predominantly about timing. To hear today that this was the precursor to another exhaustive round of consultation, which I imagine will cost as much as a year’s subsidy, is just unacceptable. I deal with both the elderly (through my other work) and youth (I have three children and have spent the last eight years on the Mahurangi College Board of Trustees), and the cries for this service have been loud and long. We need to have this service to provide connectivity and give options for our residents. We do not get great service regarding the maintenance of our roads, we pay a toll to travel south and we have no connectivity with the wider Auckland public transport network. It is time for this to change.