Councils armed and ready

North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams says the findings should give the Government a wake-up call. Photo / The Aucklander

Waitakere and North Shore councils will wield new poll results at parliamentary committee hearings this week to turn up the heat against Government proposals for the Auckland Super City.

A telephone survey commissioned by Waitakere City of 400 residents, out today, shows 86 per cent support for giving local communities greater decision-making powers and funding than the Government has proposed for 20 to 30 boards sitting below the Super City council.

Waitakere is issuing that and other poll findings before its appearance on Wednesday before the Auckland governance legislation select committee to show it is not "just pulling ideas out of thin air", deputy mayor Penny Hulse said last night.

"This is a way of checking that our views are consistent with our community rather than face criticism of patch protection or parochialism.

"We can only hope that the select committee listens to the logic of the arguments we are putting forward and takes account of the huge weight of public opinion."

North Shore City is waiting to address the select committee this morning before disclosing full details of a wider telephone poll, of about 800 ratepayers.

But Mayor Andrew Williams said more than 80 per cent support for many aspects of his council's submissions seeking greater local autonomy than offered by the Government should give MPs "a big wake-up call".

He urged the five Cabinet ministers in seats north of Auckland Harbour Bridge, including Prime Minister John Key in Helensville, to take note or face the political consequences.

"When 25 per cent of the New Zealand Cabinet is north of the harbour bridge and over 80 per cent of the population is sending this loud-and-clear message that they're not particularly happy with some aspects of how the Government's handled this, we would expect our local MPs to sit up and listen," the mayor said.

"If our local MPs are not going to sit up and listen, they'd better start thinking about do they want to be the local MPs on the North Shore or not."

Mr Williams said that although surveyed ratepayers did not mind certain functions such as transport and roads being organised at a regional level, as also supported by his council, they felt strongly that the second-tier of local government "must be left intact at a certain level to continue to provide for the communities across the region".

He predicted an interesting session for the select committee this morning, especially as Auckland City supporters of the Government's proposal will have to travel across the harbour bridge to be first on their feet to address the MPs at North Shore's Bruce Mason Centre.

"Auckland City Council will be in foreign territory - hopefully they've got a road map to know how to get there," Mayor Williams said.

Ms Hulse said her city's poll showed strong dissatisfaction with the "perfunctory powers over dogs, gambling and prostitution" offered by Local Government Minister and Act leader Rodney Hide.

"The fact is that 20 to 30 powerless little boards won't work, will be expensive to run and will not deliver better democracy or better services than the model we have proposed."

Waitakere wants the boards renamed "community councils", and reduced to between 12 and 20.

The poll also found 78 per cent support for electing all 20 members of the new Auckland Council through wards, rather than the Government's proposal for eight to be elected "at large" by voters throughout the region.

But residents were more divided on the issue of Maori seats, which the Waitakere council supports but were favoured by 42 per cent of those polled, compared with 44 per cent against.

* Waitakere residents speak up

Local boards to be able to make decisions affecting their local areas, and receive funding for these.

For 86 per cent
Against 8.3 per cent
Don't know 5.7 per cent

All members of the new Auckland Council to be elected by people in their local area (by wards) rather than across the whole region.

For 77.8 per cent
Against 13.6 per cent
Don't know 8.6 per cent