Boundary fight builds
KAREN MANGNALL
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Angry Manurewa councillors are vowing to pursue all avenues to challenge a supercity boundary change they say has "ripped out the economic heart" of the area and risks turning it into a ghetto.
Councillors Colleen Brown, Anne Candy and Daniel Newman are slamming as arbitrary and irresponsible the Local Government Commission's decision to "carve out" the Manukau central business district and hand it over to the Papatoetoe-Otara local board in the new Manukau ward.
They say the commission's "poor job of consultation" has stripped an area of high social deprivation of the valuable assets Manurewa has built up through decades of investment and hard work.
A bid by Ms Brown and Ms Candy for council backing to mount a judicial challenge was voted down 11-4 at Tuesday's policy and activities committee, winning support only from Mr Newman and Botany-Clevedon councillor Maggie Burrill.
But Ms Brown says they "aren't going to let it rest" and are investigating other avenues for lodging a challenge before the April 16 deadline.
Extending the Manukau ward's southern boundary to the State Highway 20 extension strips the new Manurewa local board of $7.6 million or about 17 percent of its annual rates, she says.
That will sharply reduce the new board's ability to lobby the Auckland Council for funding for the Manurewa community.
"We're promised local boards for local issues and thought we could advocate to the Auckland Council on the basis of contributing $45m in rates.
"But we've been disembowelled – and why?"
She doesn't believe the commission has "done the numbers" on the cost of removing Manurewa's main source of ratings growth.
"When we've got a youthful population with large numbers of them in high deprivation areas and we haven't got a strong economic base for rating, then it's like three strikes and you're out in Manurewa."
Ms Candy fears losing the city centre's rating clout will turn Manurewa into a ghetto.
There's no way Clendon and Southmall can fill the gap and Manurewa's high proportion of rental and state housing will make it "very difficult" to raise targeted rates to fund projects or free access to pools, libraries and recreation centres.
The Manukau Central Business Association is also disappointed its call for the boundary to be moved north to Puhinui Rd wasn't heeded.
Manager Stewart Heine says the association would have been "much more comfortable being included in Manurewa" where its local politicians have worked hard to support the city's business centre.
The boundary change also spells problems for the Wiri Licensing Trust which funds Manurewa community development from income generated by its pubs, pokies and property.
Trust and Manurewa Community Board member Alan Johnson says "the change has carved off a block" of the trust's property assets in Manurewa and handed it to the Papatoetoe-Otara board.
"There is a real danger that Papatoetoe will be looking for those assets for themselves.
"But it's Manurewa people who have assembled those assets and deserve to benefit from them."
Mayor Len Brown says a judicial review of the boundary change isn't the answer.
Manurewa's plight highlights the importance of the new Auckland Council adopting equity funding for local boards based on socio-economic need, he says.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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