In for the long hall?

Oratia's popular meeting place may be left to languish in disrepair under the new Auckland council, as Rowena Orejana reports.
Oratia Hall is a rectangular weatherboard building from the early 1900s. Formerly part of a Catholic church, the building's simplicity makes it perfect for community gatherings. The hall, however, is showing signs of wear and tear. Last year, a leak damaged two weatherboards. Some of the windows no longer close properly. Mould blights the ceiling. 
Neil Allport asked Waitakere Community Board for help. In the 1980s, Oratia Ratepayers and Residents Association signed a lease  with the council. "But it doesn't quite tell you who is responsible for the maintenance of the building," says Mr Allport who is the association's current chairman.
The council believes it is responsible only for the roof and the car park. Mr Allport says it has always been kind to the hall and users.
"We have developed a great rapport with the Waitakere City Council in all levels," he says.
The real concern, he says, is the uncertainty that comes with the new Auckland Council. "There is a valid concern for all grassroots community groups that years of hard work, the mutual understanding, may be lost when the super-city comes in. If we have a problem now, we can go to the council and talk to the councillors. They come to our celebrations at the local hall," he says.
Kubi Witten-Hannah, chairman of Waitakere Community Board, sympathises. "As a community board chair, we know the hall, we know the community, we know their needs. We are not a faceless bureaucracy. If there is a problem, we go in to bat for them," he says.  He says the board already has increased demands from this particular ratepayers association,  but there are some things in the contract that can be contested.
"What will happen to the hall if a less sympathetic regime comes in? If they can't get what they need to maintain the hall, the volunteers in the ratepayers association would just eventually walk away," he says. "What will happen to the hall?"
Mr Witten-Hannah says everything might turn out fine. "But you have to be really optimistic to think that."
Under current proposals, there will be one representative for the whole of the Waitakere Ranges, an impossible concept, he says. "We hoped [the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill] would spell out the responsibilities for the local councils but it has not.  We don't even know to what extent the local councils can look after these things."
Mr Allport expressed doubts that the officials elected to the new council will have time for small pockets of communities. "We do not want our community halls to be lost either through underfunding maintenance or upgrades or loss of accountability with the new governance plan."
Overhalled
Oratia Hall is a community hub. It's a cultural heritage site. A playgroup uses it four days a week. A monthly market's held there and it's a popular venue for family celebrations.
Maintenance isn't cheap. In the past six years, the association has coughed up $12,000 to keep it running.
Under the new Auckland governance arrangements, there'll be one Waitakere ward, with two councillors covering  the existing Waitakere City, excluding New Lynn, Green Bay and Kelston, plus a small area of Rodney. 
Waitakere ward
Population: 166,150
Councillors: 2
Pop/councillor: 83,075
Deviation from average pop/councillor: +12,265.5
Percentage of deviation from average pop/councillor: +17.3
(+ denotes under-representation)