Councillors criticise Auckland's rush to restructure

Auckland is trying to restructure regional government quicker than it takes to get building consent for a chicken coop, says Waitakere City councillor Derek Battersby.

Mr Battersby was one of several councillors and community board members to criticise a timetable drawn up by the region's chief executives to strengthen regional governance in time for next year's local body elections.

It was just not practical to give councils 41 working days to come up with major decisions affecting the governance of Auckland, Mr Battersby told a forum of local body politicians meeting yesterday to discuss the issue.

The meeting followed a contentious plan by the four big-city mayors to restructure Auckland into three enlarged cities under one greater council headed by a Lord Mayor elected at large.

That plan was jettisoned by the Auckland Mayoral Forum 18 days ago with a resolution that the councils develop, in consultation with the Government, a proposal to strengthen regional governance before Christmas that can "secure public support". Carving up the seven councils into three or four has been shelved for now.

However, a timetable and process drawn up by council chief executives and presented by Auckland City chief executive David Rankin to more than 70 local body politicians at the forum drew considerable scepticism.

Mr Rankin acknowledged that tension existed between the time constraints and the need to build sufficient support and consensus.

He stressed the timetable was driven by the need to have legislation introduced to Parliament in February and passed by June.

A joint officials' group of council chief executives and senior central government officers were working on the issue and businessman Brian Roche had been appointed project manager, he said.

Interested stakeholders would be consulted, market research carried out and ways of involving the public, such as a website, were being worked on.

Waitakere councillor Penny Hulse said the timetable was fundamentally flawed, saying the work could not be dusted off in six weeks.

Franklin district councillor Dennis Robertson said everyone knew there were issues that needed addressing, "but don't rush it. You won't get it done in that time".

Auckland City councillor and former Labour MP Richard Northey said the Labour-led Government was going to legislate and without something from the region it would tweak and adopt the proposal on the table from the four mayors.

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee said it was "maybe Mission Impossible but maybe this is the challenge to break the mould".