Viewpoint – Council gone mad

I have been around council politics most of my life and it’s my opinion that Auckland Council, started by John Key and Rodney Hide, has lost touch with reality.

The Auckland Unity Plan is up for review – this is the most important three years for the next 15 years of the 30-year plan. Keep an eye on what is being presented and make submissions. If your immediate reaction is that you’ve engaged in this process before, and have not been listened to, then I can understand why you might think, “what’s the point?”

Our ratepayers are finding it difficult to get common sense from council bureaucrats. Saving the planet and social welfare are not council issues, resulting in hours of wasted time and money. Cr Greg Sayers had a viewpoint article in Mahurangi Matters (Dec 20) titled, ‘The slow erosion of our democracy’. The Snells Beach dog rules are a classic case upsetting the whole community. Council spending $300 million on the Kaipara Harbour, the silt has covered all the oyster, mussel and scallop beds being replaced by Asia date mussel. Common facts, the sea needs silt to make salt. Intensive farming and stock numbers have gone. Mangroves are stuffing the harbour.

Council staff are amending bylaws and making decisions without public consultation. This has resulted in the 1908 Drainage Act being overridden, blocking overland flow paths with silt resulting in flooding problems.

Auckland Council 15 years on still doesn’t understand the difference between rural and urban. Rural pay rates for services such as roads, water, sewage, rubbish, parks and libraries. These are the essential services not ‘nice to haves’. Targeted rates on farm and lifestyle, countryside living, and agriculture production are extra rates with no benefit to rural. It is interesting to note that any targeted rate is ring-fenced and should not be increased without public consultation. The only rate not increased is the Rodney Local Board targeted transport rate that connects communities and benefits all. This must be consulted on to extend the rate from 2028 to 2038. If agreed to, this money can be bought forward to get our unsealed roads and footpaths delivered to the network at a reasonable cost.

In 2016, the unsealed road improvement programme was passed by the local board and the governing body to improve assets. If AT had taken note of our local consultants, contractors and interested groups the poor results of the new sealed network would not have happened.

Septic systems are the hot topic, eroding the personal responsibility of rural landowners who were given resource consent and a building permit, and now find themselves being asked to give information on condition and when last cleaned. Our septic systems have been put at risk. Council insisted on putting grey water into the tank killing the bacteria. Septic tanks on farms have existed for more than 100 years. All these systems have functioned successfully for decades with problems quickly fixed. Nothing to do with the environment – this is another bureaucratic cost, wasteful spending and justifying jobs. Our water tanks will be next. Council shut down Wellsford’s recycling centre, total inconvenience, then roll out rubbish and recycling. This has doubled the carbon footprint rubbish going to landfill. What’s next? Happy New Year.