Public Consultation a meaningless process.

After attempting to read and understand four volumes of the Auckland Council Draft Long Term Plan [ten-year budget] I realised that to understand what I was reading would require me to search through other supporting documents. The prospect of such a task would place huge pressure on my time and energy and the same would apply to almost every ratepayer in Auckland. I did manage to pick my selectively through the 940 or so pages of the Plan and was able to make some submissions on what I considered key issues the Central Rail Loop, and some rating issues. But there were other documents floating around for public consultation including a couple of volumes relating to transport, and a document on waste management issues [rubbish]. But a few weeks earlier we had been offered the Auckland Plan the basis for all other Plans. But that Auckland Plan has not yet been finalised and is not due to be finalised until June! So submissions on the later Plans were made in a vacuum. And the last piece of the jigsaw is contained in a 360-page agenda for the Strategy & Finance Committee which meets to finalise the budget and finally set the rates for next year, and the level of rates needed to fund proposed council spending for the following nine years. The whole process is a travesty of consultation and indeed the whole local democratic process. I doubt if every councillor has read every one of the thousands of pages of all these Plans and supporting documents. I would be astounded if a single member of the public has read all that material. And something I missed in looking through those 940 pages of the Draft budget has now come to light - Aucklands storm-water system requires about six billions of dollars expenditure over the next decade but the Mayor proposes less than one billion. Yet still the Mayor and others want to start spending millions on the Central Rail Loop for which a business plan has not been produced, and the need for which will be considerably delayed because the council has agreed that more population growth can be concentrated in the suburbs. The Auckland Council is a failure as a truly local democratic organisation. It must be reformed with urgency, initially by the Government legislating greater powers over funding to local boards and redefining the role of the Mayor by removing the requirement that the Mayor be responsible for preparing the budget. And there must be a much simpler way of presenting information to the public for consultation purposes. David Thornton.