Of Boundaries and Balance: Redrawing Auckland Council Wards

Auckland Council is proposing some changes to local ward boundaries. Consultation closes this Thursday August 8th at 4pm.

There are a number of fairly minor tweaks proposed – below, I’ll note a few points of interest.

To learn more and have your say, head to this page.

Outside of a minor border dispute around a place apparently called Unsworth Heights, entertainingly riffed on by the mayor at Governing Body (from around 5m25s in item 15 here) where he dubbed it “the Golan Heights of the North Shore” and chided “the Albanians” for quibbling about it ….

…aside from that, the most significant changes look to be happening in central areas. These are all about realigning Local Board boundaries with Ward (Councillor) boundaries, as outlined here:
Parnell, Newmarket, and Grafton are now returning to the Waitematā and Gulf Ward, to align with their existing Waitematā Local Board boundaries. This has consequential changes on the southern edge of Ōrākei Ward, which gains some areas from northern Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Ward to compensate for the population loss.

This all seems fairly straightforward. For me, there’s really only one question which is raised in the last paragraph above. Officials have chosen to preference the principle of population-per-ward over the principle of community-of-interest. You can see this in the way clearly city-centre-adjacent parts of Newton have been excluded from the Waitemata Local Board and Ward. More on that below, but first – here are the resultant population distributions. Remember a <10% variance is considered tika:

As you can see, North Shore has the lowest population per councillor  – at just one councillor/ 75k people. Howick is next, at just under 1/79k.

Fast-growing Albany has the highest population per councillor, at 1/95k, followed closely by Waitematā and Gulf at 1/94k, with both Waitākere and Manurewa-Papakura close behind at just above 1/93k. Like Albany, Waitākere is likely to break out of proportion soon, due to strong growth.

I guess it is a race between recent strong immigration numbers and the flood of people fleeing the austerity-wracked economy, as to whether we get our first 100k-people-per-councillor wards anytime soon? If so, which ward will get there first?

I don’t think it will be Waitematā and Gulf, as apartment building in the city and fringes has slowed right down. Albany, Waitākere, or down south?

North Shore is growing at Northcote, but of course not so much along its lovely east coast, nor in the locked-in-aspic Devonport. It does look like more of Albany should be shed to North Shore, for balance?

Or, maybe, a bolder move could be to shift the Gulf Islands from Waitematā to the North Shore? The islands have around 10k people, so would in one move shift both wards to approximately 85k, the target number.. Elegant. I get that the city centre is the other end of the Islands’ ferry lifelines, though they do also connect to Devonport and Half Moon Bay, and there is probably no greater contrast in any ward than between the city centre and the islands. You would hope both Shore and Island residents share a strong interest in the health of the Gulf.

Given the city centre is heading into a population growth flat patch, it does seem there’s a good argument for including the clearly city-proximate chunk of Newton, which the proposal looks to make into a weird toe of largely suburban Maungakiekie-Tāmaki, poking into the otherwise contiguous city-fringe southern edge of Waitematā and Gulf (Like a salient on the Donbas front).

This hitherto rather sad motorway-severed triangle, is coming into itself through a handful of pretty good apartment developments; at last finding its urban identity, as befits somewhere within walking distance of the city, and soon, the Karanga-a-Hape CRL station.

So, I suggest at least this chunk should also move into the Waitematā and Gulf Ward and LB area:

While new buildings like the one pictured below are adding population; it’s not so much as to break the proportionality calculator. Including at least up to Newton Rd in the Waitematā and Gulf Ward would do a great deal for coherence and logic in the one direction our constrained city centre is able to actually leap its motorway noose.

Finally, I couldn’t help noticing that the next Waitematā councillor will go from representing just one (but very significant) train station – the old terminus previously known as Britomart – to overseeing six train stations.

And not just any six either: they include what will easily be the three busiest and most important stations in the land: Waitematā, Newmarket, and Te Waihorotiu, plus our only real underground station – the unique Karanga-ā-Hape, plus plain but hard-working Grafton, as well as the poorly sited and underused Parnell.

Railway royalty: The Station Boss indeed!

Once again, feedback closes at 4pm this Thursday 8 August – head here to have your say.

And please do share any observations about what these boundary changes mean, in the comments below.

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