Hubbard gets mediocre rating

Dick Hubbard reckons the poll results are very good, even though only 19 per cent say he's done an excellent or fair job. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Aucklanders continue to feel ho-hum about Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard, more than halfway into his first term running the country's biggest city.

The latest Herald-DigiPoll survey has found 30.2 per cent of respondents rated his performance as fair, 19.3 per cent said he had done an excellent or good job and 26.9 per cent a poor or bad job.

The combined excellent-good and poor-bad figures are similar to a Herald DigiPoll survey 14 months ago when Mr Hubbard was locked in horns at budget time with his deputy, Dr Bruce Hucker.

The latest survey was taken at the end of two Herald series on soaring rates and the furore over the Boobs on Bikes parade, which Mr Hubbard said was "totally inappropriate" because it promoted a pornography trade show.

The same survey of 212 respondents across the region found 59.5 per cent of people believed the latest rates rises were too high and 34.5 per cent said they were about right.

Only 1.1 per cent said rates were too low and 5 per cent did not know. The poll had a margin for error of 6.7 per cent.

Mr Hubbard, who gained more than 50 per cent of the vote at the 2004 local body elections to defeat sitting Mayor John Banks by more than 16,000 votes, said the results showed the glass to be half-full rather than half-empty - and filling.

He said the results were very good given that the council had come out of an intense and bitter debate on rates, some of which had been unfair and misleading.

Mr Hubbard said it was "absolute rubbish" to suggest rates were increasing by 37 per cent during his first term. The overall rates increase last year was 9.7 per cent and 6.8 per cent this year.

But household rates increases have been much steeper because of a number of factors, including the soaring value of house prices and a gradual reduction in higher rates paid by businesses.

Household rates rose by 11.7 per cent last year, 13.4 per cent this year and are forecast to rise by 10 per cent next year.

Mr Hubbard said the council was taking the pain for a number of projects where ratepayers had not been able to see the gains, such as the overhaul of Maungawhau (Mt Eden), the $15 million Greenlane upgrade, changes to the district plan on heritage protection and urban design, a new dedicated busway between the city and Newmarket and redevelopment of the waterfront.

"Some of them will be flowering next year," he said.

Mr Hubbard said he also had three Auckland-wide projects on the go at the moment - advocating tunnelling on the Mt Roskill-Waterview State Highway 20 project, electrification of rail and a review of Auckland's governance.