Andrew von Dadelszen Former Regional Councillor

Five years on there is much debate about the value of Auckland's Super City.

While they haven't controlled their costs, the Auckland Super City has to be deemed a success just because the previous seven councils were totally dysfunctional – and this was holding their region back alarmingly. Things are far from good now, but at least there is just one body to deal with Auckland's substantive local government issues.

The problem that plagues all councils within New Zealand is that they are all so 'risk averse”. The Western Bay Councils (both territorial and Regional) are no different, and it has only been the foresight of having a co-ordinated Smartgrowth Strategy that has seen the Bay of Plenty (and particularly for the Western Bay) make real progress politically in Wellington.

I hand a bouquet to our local body politicians for this, as this has been huge in the past. Our challenge now is to ensure that Smartgrowth remains focused, and doesn't creep into areas with which it isn't mandated. This is already happening, and will be an ongoing risk to ballooning rates.

Ratepayers want our local government politicians to stick to their core 'reason-to-be”, as well as focusing on efficiency and effectiveness. This means that their gross overstaffing with bureaucratic planners has to be curtailed.

If you have a view on these or any other local government issues, I invite you to email me at andrew@vond.co.nz , or visit www.vond.co.nz