MEDIA STATEMENT - for immediate release

March 27 2009

Royal Commission Announcement met with Caution by Waitakere

Waitakere City Council has reacted with caution to today’s Royal Commission announcement on Auckland’s future governance.

Just minutes after leaving a presentation on the report’s findings, Mayor Bob Harvey said Waitakere as an entity would be retained with boundaries generally in tact.

“The commission has obviously recognised the need for distinctive communities to retain their unique identities rather than becoming one big homogenous glob.”

Mayor Harvey said the report which runs to more than 800 pages needed further analysis before a detailed response could be given however he said the commission had obviously studied and learned from the mistakes of forced amalgamations made in places such as Vancouver.

Mayor Harvey said an overarching unitary authority with powers to rate and then allocate money to smaller councils gave him real cause for concern.

“I find it difficult there is taxation without direct representation,” he says.

“We really do have to look at whether local councils should be able to rate and spend accordingly rather than having funding decisions made remotely.

“The ball is now very much in the government’s court in terms of what it does with it. Obviously we look forward to discussing with them the implications of any changes. The real work starts now.”

ENDS

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