Frances Harrison worked as a public affairs adviser at the Waitakere City Council before it was swallowed up by the Auckland super city in 2010. She now lives in Rolleston and has gone public about her concerns.
Harrison can see history repeating after a city council submission to the Future for Local Government Panel. This would mean Sewlyn and other district councils in Canterbury would be included in a super city, where the city council would be the unitary authority.
Currently there are six unitary authorities in New Zealand, which have the powers of a regional council. They are in Auckland, Gisborne, Nelson, Marlborough, Tasman and the Chatham Islands.
“I have first-hand experience of the creation of a super city. Have we learned nothing from the debacle of Auckland?” Harrison said.
She said before the super city takeover the Waitakere City Council had a good connection with its local community but this was lost.
“The sustainable principles that local councils were working on were starting to bear fruit. Businesses went under, local cohesion was destroyed.”
Harrison said she could see the city council moving to a super city model to spread the cost of assets out to ratepayers in Selwyn.
“They are not visionary, but they must be salivating at the idea of accessing rates from an entire region,” she said.
Harrison felt the two councils could work better together without becoming a super city.
