Rob Thomas, Media Release, 30 April 2009

Communities wake up to Super City

It looks like the Super City is all go but concerns still exist about local decision making.

The Government is drafting a Bill that will determine Auckland’s new governance structure. I support the integration of our regional services because it should provide effective decision making and provide the opportunity to inspire Aucklanders. But the devil will be in the detail or as someone pointed out, the devil could be the lack of detail.

Many years ago I was invited to sit on the Hobson Community Board as the Chairperson of the Auckland City Youth Council. Subsequently I was involved in developing a three year community plan for the Tawa Community Board in Wellington.

I learnt that:

It is important to allow residents and community groups a voice.
It is important that local boards are able to make decisions that affect their community.
Local boards need funding like SLIPS (Small Local Improvement Projects) to ensure communities continue to be healthy, sustainable and prosperous
It is vital that local boards can escalate issues to councillors and council officers.
There are thousands of examples where decisions at a local level have made a major impact on our day to day life. Here are just two:

SLIPs funding was used to fix a crumbling retaining wall at a day care centre.
There was a leak in the roof of the Remuera Library, it was getting worse and the current financial planning would have been too-little-too-late Community Board members were able to escalate this issue and the problem was fixed.
There are community groups across Auckland only now realising that the Super City could see millions of dollars being taken away from community initiatives. A coalition has been established to bring community groups together www.cc4a.net.nz.

Our communities still run the real risk of losing out unless local boards have legislative responsibilities that can fund community initiatives.

Rob Thomas, Auckland Candidate

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