N Rodney bid to flee Super City

Residents of northern Rodney want to establish a new council located north of Puhoi. Photo / NZ Herald

Residents of northern Rodney are making a fresh bid to escape the clutches of the Super City.

The Northern Action Group is beginning a series of meetings this week with the aim of forming a breakaway Northern Rodney District Council comprised of six councillors.

Committee spokesman Dennis Brown said northern Rodney ratepayers paid $42 million a year in rates to the "people in Queen St" but received no benefits in return.

The group estimated it could reduce rates by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of the Auckland Council rates for a new council located north of Puhoi and including Warkworth and Wellsford.

The new rural council would have between 15,000 and 20,000 people.

Following a series of meetings and a poll in the run-up to October's local body elections, the group plans to present a breakaway proposal to the Local Government Commission the day after the postal elections close on October 12. The group unsuccessfully tried to be excluded from the Super City prior to its formation in 2010 and become part of Kaipara District Council - which has since had commissioners appointed by the Government to run the debt-laden district.

Rodney councillor Penny Webster said the former Rodney district tried to stay out of the Super City, it was in it now and had to make it work.