Govt too coy on coastal carve-up, says Lee

The Government should come clean about its plans to take Auckland's coastal playground north of Waiwera out of the Super City, says Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee.

Prime Minister John Key yesterday said the Cabinet had made an initial decision on Auckland's northern boundary, but refused to give details before the Auckland governance select committee reports back to Parliament on September 4.

Mr Key indicated there was still an opportunity to make boundary changes on an issue the Government has not consulted the public on.

The northern boundary is the second issue to go to Cabinet before the select committee has tabled its report. On Monday, the Cabinet decided not to have Maori seats on the Super Auckland Council.

"If we can debate an important issue like Maori seats why is it a deep secret that without any warning the Government apparently has stripped out one quarter of greater Auckland and given it to somebody else," Mr Lee said.

The Herald revealed yesterday that the Government is planning to split Rodney in two, leaving urban Whangaparaoa and Orewa in the Super City and the area north of Waiwera being merged with Kaipara District Council. The split is understood to be a compromise to appease a strong desire, particularly among northern rural communities, to be excluded from the Super City.

The areas in question are represented by three senior National MPs - Mr Key, the MP for Helensville; Associate Local Government Minister and Northland MP John Carter and Parliament's Speaker and Rodney MP Lockwood Smith.

The compromise has not gone down well with Rodney Mayor Penny Webster, who says Rodney should be "all in or all out" of the Super City.

Kaipara Mayor Neil Tiller said the Government had ignored its suggestion for a single council based around the Kaipara Harbour and said nothing about merging north Rodney with Kaipara. He said it would lead to Kaipara disappearing as a small, low-cost, no frills rural council and the balance of power shifting to Rodney, jeopardising 40-odd head office jobs in Dargaville.

The split is also at odds with Federated Farmers, which wants the rural areas north and south of urban Auckland to be part of the Super City.

Mr Lee has written to Local Government Minister Rodney Hide saying Rodney faces south to Auckland, not north to Dargaville or Whangarei.

"I cannot see that severing the formal connections between urban Auckland and its rural economic base would be consistent with the Government's agenda for economic growth, infrastructure development and tourism. The proposal appears almost wilfully destructive in its intent," Mr Lee said.

The letter said the split would have population and financial downsides for Kaipara, with north Rodney's 21,600 people out-numbering Kaipara's 18,600, and some of Rodney District Council's $287 million worth of debt being transferred to Kaipara ratepayers.

Christine Rose, the Rodney councillor on the regional council, said north Rodney would lose generous funding for projects like the Mahurangi Action Plan to reverse the effects of sedimentation on the Mahurangi Harbour.

For every dollar of rates collected in Rodney, the regional council spent $3.16 in the district, she said.

Graham Painter, president of the Omaha Beach residents' group, whose 1100 members include Mr Key, who has a holiday home at the coastal resort, said the split did not make sense and would not fly economically.

It would merge an enormous land mass of Rodney with a small population and small rating base with an even smaller population and rating base in Kaipara, he said.

RODNEY NUMBERS

POPULATION
* Rodney District Council - 96,400
* North Rodney - 21,600*
* Kaipara District Council - 18,600

RATES - 2009/2010
* North Rodney* - $23.7m from 13,508 ratepayers
* Kaipara District Council - $18.9m from 11,820 ratepayers
*Auckland Regional Council figures based on estimated area of Rodney that may become part of Kaipara.