The Royal Commission on Auckland governance has completed its work and handed its report over to Government for action. You can read more at http://www.royalcommission.govt.nz/

Essentially, all governance gets taken up by a new 'unitary' authority. 10 Councillors and the Mayor are elected by the wider Auckland region, 2 from North Shore, and 3 from the Maori role and mana whenua.

Our community board will be disestablished. Local representation will be by two councillors per ward. Our new local council (Waitemata) includes North Shore plus Hibiscus Coast.

What are your thoughts, questions or concerns about the proposed structures?

Dear North Shore residents,

Two things have inspired me over the last couple of days to write to you .
The first was one of our local MPs telling us that he has had little
feedback from North Shore people on the Royal Commission's findings and
the second was talking to people in the street like you, who tell me
that  they don't like many of the proposed changes, particularly the
loss of grassroots decision making , but feel powerless to do anything
and believe no one will listen to them anyway.I felt that was a rather
sad reflection on democracy today.

Of course we are not powerless. The government have still not yet come
down with their  decision .The cabinet meets tomorrow to make a first
response. There is still time to communicate your message to our 4 North Shore MPs and hopefully make a difference

murray.mccully@parliament.govt.nz     or murray.mccully@national.org.nz
wayne.mapp@parliament.govt.nz or wayne.mapp@national.org.nz
jonathan.coleman@parliament.govt.nz or jonathan.coleman@national.org.nz
john.key@parliament.govt.nz or john.key@national.org.nz

For those of you who are more computer savvy than me  our Prime Minister John Key, whose electorate covers Albany, Paremoremo and Greenhithe has a Facebook site at  johnkey.co.nz

Although most people can see the advantages of stronger regional governance, particularly in areas like planning, transportation and economic growth and want to see  further economies and efficiencies identified and delivered, their key areas of concern expressed to me have been

* the loss of our special North Shore identity  (On a lighter note I've just had an email via one mother from some of our younger residents on their OE,they have  seemingly set up a Facebook site where they are extremely concerned at the potential loss of their identity as Shore girls and do not want to be known as Waitemata girls)

*lack of accountability at a local level, as such a high number of the new Super City councillors would be
elected at large . Many see this leading to party politics taking over the local government scene as it has already in Auckland City . How
else they tell me would anyone be able to mount and fund an election campaign spanning an area from Wellsford to the Waikato.?

*Accountability: once elected how accountable will these politicians be to the people who elect them? As one Browns Bay local emailed me yesterday thanking me for my help on a parking issue,."Where do we protest about the loss of community boards etc if the new proposals go ahead . I can't see Auckland people being concerned about our ducks and parking issues"

Even if they were interested, how are they going to realistically cover such a wide and diverse area of so many people ?. Not one person I have spoken to, has supported any ' at large'  election process other than for electing the Mayor. The majority liked ward electorates ,especially if they represented distinct communities of interest. Some liked the idea of each local council appointing at least one councillor so the local councils were able to communicate effectively with the Super City and not just squabble with them

*real concerns over the suggested geographical boundaries.
Many questioned the addition of the urban part of Rodney and the costs of servicing that area. Also they couldn't understand the loss of Paremoremo and Okura to a now totally rural Rodney, as both communities clearly identify with North Shore City where they shop, go to school and are involved

*the removal of all Community Boards except for Waiheke, Great Barrier Island and the new board being established for the CBD has surprised many people. Just as the Commission saw the value of setting up a Board in the CBD to rejuvenate and champion for that area ,the people  I've spoken to value the role their Boards have done in representing their communities.

* finally people are asking who is going to fund the shortfall? Although in a few years time they are hoping for efficiency gains and savings they acknowledge that over the next four years the Super City will cost somewhere between $120 million and $240 million extra to fund. We know if we paid for this completely by rates this could add up to an extra 6% on to our rates.I keep being asked, particularly by elderly ratepayers, is it  fair that they should pay for such a radical change that they neither asked for or feel they can afford to fund.

This is just some of the feedback I have received and wanted to share with you. Of course there are other issues also that I have not expanded on. There might  be features of the plan that you would also like to support and tell the MPs about . My purpose in writing to you however is to tell you that other people also care and that I know  that our local North Shore  MPs want to listen, they have told us that.I have of course listed their email addresses above. Please contact them and also send this email on to anyone else you think might be interested. At the end of the day, at least we can say ,we cared and tried to make some changes. Apathy did not rule but people power did!

Kind regards,

Julia Parfitt

Deputy Mayor

North Shore City Council

1 The Strand , Takapuna

Private Bag 93500, Takapuna,

North Shore City, New Zealand