MONEY BEING SIPHONED OFF
Rodney is a district which is part of the Auckland Super City. It covers more than 2,246 square kilometres, so it is the largest district within Auckland Council making up 46% (almost half) of the Super City's land mass. Across this vast area it has rural areas, commercial centres, townships as well as high residential areas. Local elected representatives comprise of nine Rodney Local Board members and one Auckland Councillor.
Rodney has a strong focus on primary industry production in agriculture as well as forestry. It produces food for Auckland having dairy, sheep and beef farms. Primary production industries also include aquaculture, viticulture and horticulture business all of which rely on transporting food via the roads to Auckland. You probably buy from the Supermarket food and milk produced by Rodney farmers.
Unsealed roads add wear and tear to trucks and this cost is eventually passed into price increases. Unsealed roads are also very unsafe to drive on.
Rodney’s roads are presently deplorable third world roads. That simply isn't showcased when we promote Auckland as the World's Most Liveable City. It's hidden. For example, did you know Auckland had roads this bad?
Rodney in fact has over 673 kilometres of bad unsealed roads!
It will take 335 years to seal all of Rodney’s roads. Why? Because Auckland's Councillor's have chosen to only spend $1.4 million on sealing Rodney’s roads. Each kilometre of sealing, on average costs, $406,000 per kilometre.
That is, Auckland will only seal 2 - 4 kilometres of Rodney's roads a year using $1.4 million.
But, Rodney ratepayers contribute to Auckland city $60+ million a year in rate payments!!
The rural people alone pay $33+ million each year. So where is the rest of the money being siphoned off too if only $1.4 million is coming back to be spent in Rodneys rural communities?
Rodney's ratepayers are simply asking for $10 million a year to be spent on road sealing. They’re not even asking for all the rates they pay back. That seems fair - doesn't it? This will seal 20 - 22 kilometres of road a year, which is much more reasonable.
In a nut shell, these hardworking tax-paying families don't want to be ripped off. At the moment they don't even have one of the first jobs every Council does for its citizens, which is to build safe roads.
WHERE'S THE MONEY GOING?
It is important to understand that many Rodney people don't get anywhere near the same kind of Council services in return for the rates they pay compared with other Aucklanders.
They receive no rubbish collections. They receive no fresh water services piped to their homes. They have no sewage pipes connected from their homes. They have no waste water pipes.
Yet they still faithfully pay their rates like all other Aucklanders. So what can they get in return for paying their rates?
They say, having their roads sealed.
In fact, the rest of Auckland gets its road sealed, footpaths built, rubbish collected, fresh water supplied, and sewage and waste water treated, and much more. Surely it’s fair that Rodney's people can have some of their own rates spent on at least one of these standard Council services.
At the moment their rates are being spent out of their area and on Auckland CBD projects, and not back where they are collected from. That's not right. That's not fair!
