Kaipara takes a stand

BY ROBIN DOWNEY

The Kaipara District Council has rejected a report’s recommendations that it join with Whangarei district as a governance option.

The recommendation was part of a commissioned report by consultant group McKinlay Douglas that there should be two unitary authorities to govern Northland and that the present governance structure will hamper the region going forward into the future.

Mayor Neil Tiller and his councillors took a stand in not supporting the recommendations of the report and did not join Northland’s other mayors, Far North’s Wayne Brown and Whangarei’s Stan Semenoff, last Wednesday at a special meeting held at the Twin Bridges, where the three districts touch, according to a Kaipara District Council spokeswoman.

She says the two-unitary authority option will "not be kind on the Kaipara, its environment, its economic situation and its people and that the council’s preferred option is to look at an authority based around the Kaipara Harbour to possibly include the northern reaches of Rodney District.

"There will be no benefit to the Kaipara being absorbed into Whangarei district."

She says residents from the southern part of Kaipara and the northern, more rural area of Rodney, which are similar and encompass the wider Kaipara Harbour, have signed a petition saying they do not want to become part of the Auckland supercity decision.

"The people of Rodney are rurally focused, similar in lifestyle to Kaipara people and culturally and we are saying ‘let them come north and have one authority around the catchment of the Kaipara Harbour’."

The Kaipara council says its population could increase from 18,000 to about 25,000, which would benefit both districts and ensure effective management of the Kaipara Harbour.

She says the council is supporting the Rodney residents in their request, "because they have approached us".

But the council will still work with its neighbours, Far North and Whangarei.

She says there is no reason for Dargaville township as a centre to be affected by the proposal.

"We, the council, believe that while the boundaries of the district would change, Dargaville as a business centre would continue to grow."

The findings of the $80,000 report was commissioned by the three Northland mayors to review the best options for local governance for the region.

The leaders say they commissioned the shared-cost report because of the creation of the Auckland supercity.

They say it is preferable for Northland to be proactive in shaping its own destiny when it’s facing the challenges around infrastructure, socio-economic and geographical issues in order to maximise central government benefits for the region.

The 108-page independent report from Tauranga group McKinlay Douglas makes the recommendation that the existing four-
council structure be rationalised because it is not considered to be "fit for purpose for Northland into the future".

It says one or two unitary authorities or local body structures – combining both regional and district functions – is preferred.

The report recommends that the two authorities be the governance option, one combining Kaipara and Whangarei and the other in the Far North.

The review was first mooted and agreed at a meeting of the mayoral forum in August 2009 where all three mayors and the Northland Regional Council chairman were present.

All councils agreed on only one tier of local government for Northland.

The regional council subsequently withdrew from the process although the three district councils encouraged continued talks and involvement with the regional authority as the review progressed.

At the Twin Bridges meeting, Mr Semenoff said that the two mayors "have a mandate to do the best for our districts".

In regard to Kaipara, the mayors said they will support Mr Tiller in any decision he makes and that they believe he supports the report.

They said they understand his predicament regarding whether to join Rodney but they imagined two authorities – Whangarei Kaipara and Far North District.

Mr Semenoff said it’s interesting to note Maori have always expected the Kaipara Harbour to be kept "as one".

- © Fairfax NZ News