Islanders fear 'giant monoculture'

Waiheke Island. Photo / Supplied

It will be a nightmare if the culture at Auckland City Council gets embedded in the Super City, says Hauraki Gulf Islands city councillor Denise Roche.

The culture and behaviour of the council was a hot topic when MPs travelled to Waiheke Island yesterday to gauge islanders' views on the Super City.

"The worst nightmare would be getting the culture of Auckland City Council - a monoculture dinosaur where the bureaucrats run amok with our local decision-making," Denise Roche said.

She said that both Waiheke and Great Barrier Island communities had valid criticisms about the way Auckland City applied a one-size-fits-all approach that resulted in decisions being made in downtown Auckland with disastrous results for the character of the islands.

Community board chairman Tony Sears said nothing had galvanised the community against the council more in recent times than the decision to award a new waste collection contract to a multinational company ahead of the local incumbent.

"There is palpable disappointment, anger and frustration that our community's wishes for local management of something so dear to our hearts had been disregarded and ignored," he said.

Mr Sears said some islanders wanted total independence and many were afraid that the Super City would make matters worse and Waiheke would be subsumed into an even bigger urban conglomerate.

He was heartened by promises of greater powers and responsibilities for local boards but said these needed to be enshrined in legislation.

"Bitter experience reinforces that we do not want delegations given or withdrawn at the whim of a council. It is no secret that our Deputy Mayor [David Hay] has little regard for community boards.

"I'm sure that he and others of his ilk believe council would function much more smoothly if boards were abolished altogether," Mr Sears said.

Antagonism towards Auckland City Council was picked up on by the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance and has surfaced again as MPs trek around the region listening to public views on the Government's Super City plan.

Last week, submitters in Manukau criticised the region's largest council for looking after the wealthy eastern suburbs and doing little for the poor people of Otahuhu.

But nowhere is the anti-Auckland City cry louder than on Waiheke Island, described by Brent Simpson as a "hyper-community".

"We take democracy seriously and we act on our democratic rights in many forms. We are inquisitive, we are informed and when necessary we act and we speak out."

Mr Simpson, a Waiheke community radio trustee, said the local station was about as "Number 8 wire as you can get" in a material sense.

"But in its social, participatory and communicative functions, this station helps Waihekians become better citizens of New Zealand," he said.

Several MPs asked submitters what they could do about the culture of the new Super Auckland Council to which Shirin Brown suggested making council officers reapply for their jobs.