Northern Action Group

Frequently asked questions

Will our rates be less?
Yes. The detailed budget, for those interested is on the Rates page (Financial projections by Mitchell)
Auckland Council is a very expensive beast with high overheads, high debt, large numbers of employees and a spending culture more appropriate to a large urban organisation than to the no frills Council that we are proposing.
For these reasons alone, we are confident that our rates annually can be 10 to15% less than Auckland's. We intend to provide services at about the same level and quality as at present more appropriate to our rural/small township areas by running a lean cost-effective organisation.

Will you know what your rates are used for?
Yes. Our model is to have a transparent council where ratepayers will be able to see exactly where all their rate dollars are used.

Will our health and/or education services be affected?
No. These services are provided by totally separate government agencies, not councils, and catchement boundaries are on a totally different criteria nothing to do with local Councils.

Will we have to amalgamate with KDC or Mangawhai?
No. The new North Rodney Unitary Council (NRUC) will be a completely separate and independent ‘unitary’ council. (a unitary council is one that assumes the duties of both a District Council and a Regional Council.) As such it will be a single tier administration thereby avoiding duplicated and costly administration staff.

How will our small council be able to afford to maintain the Regional Parks?
It won’t have to. The majority of users of the parks are from outside North Rodney so our model is for the Regional parks to remain the property of Auckland Council as an ‘absentee owner’. Obviously they will still be there for us to use and we intend to negotiate a grant in lieu of rates to pay for the wear and tear of the access roads.

What will the process of setting up a completely new council cost us?
Obviously there will be a cost involved but in the first instance we will try to get central Government to pay as it is their action that got us in Auckland in the first place completely sweeping aside our democratic rights. Failing that we do have considerable equity to be released in the Orewa council building and the Regional parks (and probably other things) which will remain in Auckland’s ownership. The revenue from that should go a long way towards building our new council.

How much Debt would we exit Auckland Council with?
In theory, none. We will argue that although RDC entered the super city as one of the most highly indebted councils nearly all of it related to expenditure in the south so North Rodney should not be burdened with debt from other areas. These and other negotiations are ones that we hope to be able to submit to LGC on (but there’s no guarantee we’ll even get asked.)

Has NAG factored in depreciation in their calculations?
Yes. Our budget is drawn up on an output basis and significant expenditures as reported are this way all "depreciation inclusive"
If we had done exactly the same budget listing say payroll, interest and,maintenance costs (on an input basis) then depreciation would be included as a separate item along with the other "input" items.

Is it possible for us to de-amalgamate from the Super city?
Of course. Nothing is impossible with people power. Check out what happened across the ditch. On 15 March 2008, under the Local Government (Reform Implementation) Act 2007 passed by the Parliament of Queensland on 10 August 2007, the Shire of Noosa merged with the Shire of Maroochy and the City of Caloundra to form the Sunshine Coast Region. Noosa's mayor, Bob Abbot, won the mayoralty of the new Council over Maroochy's Joe Natoli with 70% of the combined vote.[4] On 9 March 2013, Noosa residents voted to de-amalgamate Noosa from the Sunshine Coast Council. The Sunshine Coast council ratified a new planning scheme on 18 March come January 1, Sunshine Coast and Noosa will be separate councils that require a different model, to do otherwise would be absolutely irresponsible." A separate Noosa Shire local council takes effect from 1 January 2014."