Media Release
26 June 2006

Manukau Matters

The first edition of “Manukau Matters”, the city-wide publication to improve council communication to Manukau city residents, will be delivered to nearly 100,000 letterboxes on 1 and 2 July.

Sir Barry Curtis, Mayor of Manukau, says the council is committed to informing residents and ratepayers about council decisions, activities, projects, how rates are being spent and why.

“I have believed for some time that the council should have its own means of communicating with the public,“ Sir Barry says. “City or region-wide newsletters are published by a number of city and regional councils. They are an efficient and cost effective way of getting information to all residents.”

Council Chief Executive Officer Leigh Auton says the new publication will not require any additional spending by council. Instead, it will be paid for with money previously budgeted to be spent on communication in other ways.

Manukau Matters, which will be published and distributed twice a month, will contain articles on council services, activities and projects in the city. It will promote the city’s resources, attractions and facilities and every second issue will include a diary of events and leisure programmes of interest to residents. Most of the council’s public notice advertising will also appear in the publication.

Mr Auton says Manukau Matters is an additional means of getting important information to ratepayers. It is intended to complement, not replace, local newspapers.

“The council will maintain its relationship with local media and continue to issue press releases and respond to media inquiries,” he says, “however it is recognised that a lot of the information council needs to convey to residents would not meet the criteria for inclusion as ‘news’ in local media, or could not be reported in the detail council requires.”

ENDS

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