Super City Advantages ?!

The new Auckland Council will merge the existing council operations of the current eight councils into a single service provider. The advantages of this include:

• One rating system instead of 8 rating authorities.
• One rates bill instead of two per property.
• One IT data system instead of 8 separate council data systems.
• One regional transport authority instead of 8 local transport entities.
• One water and wastewater provider instead of 8 water providers.
• One Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP).
• One district plan instead of 7 different district plans.

Overall the advantages in one sentence are that everything becomes one, and everything becomes simple. The 8 rating authorities, 8 council data systems, 8 local transport entities, 8 water and wastewater providers, 8 Long Term Council Community Plan, and 7 district plans are all becomes 1 system. Obviously, it greatly cuts off the labor cost, saves physical and natural resources. Everything would be designed in a ‘big picture’. There is no more arguing, confusing and misunderstanding among different councils.

However, this situation indicates that every plan, activity and strategy taken by the Auckland Super City Council has to be seriously, carefully and considering four well-beings for all Auckland citizens. In other words, the eight times of stress from eight councils are all compressed on one. Each initiative by the new council would affect ever further on both positive and negative sides.