Northland's southern boundary with Auckland, pictured at Topuni, would disappear under a Kaipara-North Rodney Council. Photo / Susan Botting
Kaipara District Council wants a combined Kaipara–North Rodney Council to be considered in the Government’s local government shake-up.
The council is backing North Rodney Action Group’s proposal to form a unitary authority by merging the area governed by Kaipara District Council (KDC) with the northern two‑thirds of the former Rodney District Council, now part of Auckland Council.
KDC is including the proposal in its submission on the Government’s plan it calls simplifying local government – due by February 20 – in spite of the Government not allowing Auckland Council, which was set up in 2010 under its own legislation, to be part of its local government reforms.
The plans are New Zealand’s biggest local government restructure since the sector’s nationwide 1989 amalgamations.
KDC Deputy Mayor Gordon Lambeth said the proposal gave the Government an option worth exploring.
He did not personally support amalgamation, but said the council had to look at what worked best for ratepayers as part of the Government push for change.
Kaipara–North Rodney Council would become a standalone electoral area – changing the existing regional boundary between Northland and Auckland and would reflect Auckland’s continued growth northward.
It would take over district and regional functions now split between KDC and the Northland Regional Council, which the Government intends to dissolve. It would also assume equivalent functions delivered in north Rodney by Auckland Council.
The proposed council would be largely rural and coastal and include service towns such as Dargaville, Helensville, Warkworth and Wellsford.
It would also include the growth-challenged coastal settlements of Mangawhai in Northland and Auckland’s Matakana coast.
KDC’s draft submission says the council is committed to working with neighbouring authorities to ensure local government in Northland remains cohesive, efficient and cost‑effective while still providing strong services to communities.
Kaiwaka–Mangawhai councillor Luke Canton told a recent KDC briefing meeting that the council, with a population of just under 30,000, risked being overshadowed in a Northland‑wide amalgamation.
“We want to make sure we don’t get swallowed up. We need to make sure we get as much control as we can for our local area in any amalgamation,” Canton said.
KDC is one of four Northland councils – also including Whangārei District Council, Far North District Council and Northland Regional Council – jointly looking at amalgamation under the Government’s plans and between them catering for about 200,000 residents.
KDC is Northland’s smallest council with 26,800 residents. Kaipara–North Rodney Council would have about 80,000 residents, also including about 50,000 from north Rodney.
The proposal would tip Northland’s restructuring into being between only WDC, FNDC and NRC.
North Rodney Action Group is a lobby group long pushing to separate from Auckland Council.
Group chair Bill Foster, from Leigh near Warkworth, believed Northland did not need Kaipara to create an effective new regional government under the Government’s plans.
He said combining KDC with north Rodney made more sense than Kaipara joining a much larger Northland entity.
In Foster’s opinion, a combined Kaipara and north Rodney council would better be able to deal with preserving the areas’ predominantly rural-coastal essence in the face of the intensifying urbanisation expanding north from Auckland.
This had already changed Warkworth as the 18km Pūhoi–Warkworth SH1 four-laning extension opened in 2023.
People were already speculating on Wellsford property as construction of SH1’s next northward extension step loomed.
Mangawhai too is also already experiencing growth from the SH1 four-laning.
The next four-laning step creating a new 26km stretch of SH1 from Warkworth–Te Hana is expected to begin by the end of this year and take eight years, finishing in 2034.
Foster said it was important that intense development did not consume lower Northland as Auckland moved north.
He claimed urbanisation was being encouraged through Government planning changes, but communities and their ratepayers were being left to foot the bill for massive resulting infrastructure changes.
Foster believed Kaipara had local control but lacked scale. North Rodney had scale without local control.
“The merger option responds to both sets of constraints by realigning governance to geography, community structure and service realities,” Foster said.
The proposed new council’s footprint would cover the existing Kaipara District and extend south towards the Waitākere Ranges in the west and Waiwera in the east.
Its southern boundary would begin near Muriwai on the west coast then head inland to Waiwera.
Pūhoi would be part of the new council, but SH1’s Johnstones Hill tunnels would remain under Auckland Council.
Warkworth, Wellsford and Helensville would also be included in the new council.
The plan does not include the area around the former Rodney District Council’s Ōrewa head office.
Hibiscus Coast, Dairy Flat and Kumeu would also remain with Auckland.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.