KEY POINTS:
Aucklanders will be encouraged to have their say on how they want to see their region run as part of the Royal Commission into the city.
A Commission consisting of chairman Peter Salmon, QC, Dame Margaret Bazley and David Shand, was appointed on October 29 to report on how Auckland should be run.
The region's 1.3 million people are currently overseen by a regional council, four city councils, three district councils and 25 community boards.
Plans for a Royal Commission were unveiled in July after Prime Minister Helen Clark was unimpressed at ideas put forward by local councils.
"We want to put Auckland's future in the hands of Aucklanders," Justice Salmon said. "The success of this inquiry depends on getting the widest feedback possible from the people of Auckland, from our diverse community."
The panel will be calling for public submissions in February or March and will "aim to engage as wide a cross-section as possible", Justice Salmon said.
"We would like to keep our procedures as informal as possible. We want people to feel comfortable talking to us directly."
Justice Salmon said the Commission was particularly interested in views on how local government should be structured.
"The Commission's aim is to recommend a form of local body governance which will serve Auckland well now, and for the next 50 years," he said.
"This means thinking carefully about what the future holds for Auckland - its identity, the competitive and other pressures on Auckland, its ethnic mix, and Auckland's place in the Pacific and the world."
Details on the submission process will be outlined early next year. The Royal Commission is due to report back to the Government by December 1, 2008.
