29 August, 2024

Local board suggests expansion into East Coast Bays suburbs

East Coast Bays coastal suburbs should be added to the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board (DTLB) area to boost its size, board members say. 
Their suggestion of an expansion of the board area, which currently runs from Devonport to Castor Bay and Sunnynook, will go to an Auckland Council working party, which will recommend board boundary changes for introduction ahead of the 2028 local body elections.
Combined with the Glenfield-based Kaipatiki Local Board west of the Northern Motorway, the DTLB makes up the North Shore ward from which two Auckland councillors are elected.  
Under another council proposal, Devonport-Takapuna would be merged with Kaipatiki into a new North Shore board.
Expanding the DTLB area north would help meet a council target of evening out the population of each ward to reduce variations to plus or minus 10 per cent.
The existing Albany ward is just over 10 per cent above the guide size of 170,000 residents, whereas the North Shore ward is minus 13.7 per cent, DTLB chair Toni van Tonder noted.
Albany encompasses the Hibiscus and Bays and Upper Harbour local boards.
With Albany’s population growing faster than North Shore’s, board member George Wood said it made sense to look at adjusting boundaries for 2028, rather than waiting for another review three years later.  
“In another six years there could be a very substantial change and council will have to look at taking on quite a lot of residents north of our North Shore ward,” he said. 
Van Tonder said the DTLB’s request that an expansion north be considered did not get into specific suggestions of what suburbs “north along the East Coast Bays” might potentially be added to the DTLB area.
But she was keen for the working party to consider the option. 
The board delegated Wood and Gavin Busch to speak at a hearing before the working party finalises representation recommendations. Councillors will vote on implementing the review in September. 
The board agreed with a suggested small boundary change to put Saunders Reserve, north of Sunset Rd, wholly within the Upper Harbour Board area, rather than it being split with the DTLB. 
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown wanted local board amalgamation to be completed for next year’s local body elections, but councillors instead opted for 2028. The aim is to save costs and create larger, more-empowered local boards.
DTLB is wary about the plan, which the public is yet to have a say on. It fears local voices will be watered down. 
DTLB has six elected members now and Kaipatiki eight, with proposals for a five-seven split making up a 12-member board. 
Some DTLB members have suggested the plan has more to do with administrative convenience in following existing ward boundaries and shared board staffing, rather than creating genuine communities of interest by looking to northern suburbs rather than west.

• While the board’s future shape is uncertain, its budgets are looking steadier for the current and next financial year, after it was forced to make big cuts in 2022-2023, in a council spending clampdown. The planned introduction of an equity-funding formula next year threatened further loss of local spend, but this has been delayed. The formula will mean proportionally less for asset-rich areas such as the North Shore, but no further cuts.

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