Auckland Council is reconsidering how to allocate funding across local boards and is looking at various funding models. According to these models, Waitakere Ranges are in for the biggest hit.
If Auckland Council moves to a population based model (Model F) (link to document here), Waitakere Ranges Local Board with it’s more sparse and spread population could see a funding cut to our area of 40%.
The other factor in the Auckland Council Models is spend on Locally Driven Intiatives. Waitakere Ranges has one of the highest per population spends of Locally Driven Initiatives (with two of our big spends being Arts and the Environment). Scenario C proposes that these local initiatives should incur an extra charge on your rates of $73 per household.
The local board will no doubt be advocating for a better deal. Possibly based on the cost in maintaining the heritage area which is an area protected for the enjoyment of the region and because of it’s larger land area requires higher costs, managing possums and streams and weeds etc. We will watch this conversation with interest.