📢 Make sure you have your say on how you're represented!
Auckland Council holds local elections every three years. To ensure we have fair and effective representation at these elections, we must review our representation arrangements every six years.
A representation review looks at:
• how many councillors we should have
• how councillors should be elected
• if councillors should be elected from their wards or across the whole of Auckland
• the names and boundaries of wards and local boards.
A representation review makes sure that each councillor/local board member represents a similar number of people, known as the 'fairness of representation rule' or the '+/- 10 per cent rule.' We can decide not to follow this rule if it would:
• split communities of interest (people with shared interests)
• join dissimilar communities (people who have very different interests or needs from those of neighbouring communities).
You can learn more about representation reviews on the Local Government Commission website: https://www.lgc.govt.nz/our-work/representation-reviews/
Due to the significant population growth in the Flat Bush area, the Botany subdivision for the Howick Local Board has too many people for the three members. While there are 14,667 and 14,367 residents per member for Howick and Pakuranga (respectively), Botany has 23,500. This exceeds the 'fairness of representation rule' and needs to be addressed.
After advice from staff and a short public consultation on the various options, the Howick Local Board has recommended that Auckland Council reduces the size of the Botany subdivision to 2 members and create a new subdivision for Flat Bush with 3 members. You can see the agenda report and our resolution here: https://akhaveyoursay.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/91754/widgets/440669/documents/289693
It’s vital that local residents have their say on how they are represented.
Public consultation is open from 12pm Monday 8 July to 4pm Thursday 8 August 2024.
There will be a drop-in session at the Howick Village Market on Saturday 13 July and an online information session on Thursday 18 July. We’ve also asked staff to look at something in Flat Bush / Ormiston.
There is more information on the proposal and how you can have your say at: https://akhaveyoursay.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/auckland-council-representation-project