Council to Meet Regarding ARC Statements

The Rodney District Council is to hold an extraordinary council meeting to discuss what some councillors are calling a major shifting of the goalposts by the Auckland Regional Council regarding the Orewa Growth Strategy.

This follows hard on comments made by the regional council’s deputy chair and Rodney representative Christine Rose last week that the ARC was not imposing growth on Orewa.

Hibiscus Coast councillor Bill Smith reacted angrily, calling for an urgent meeting of the Rodney District Council and letters to be sent from the council to the ARC asking for clarification of the issue.

He says that Councillor Christine Rose’s comments, if quoted correctly, were at complete variance with what all local councils believed to be the ARC’s demand for greater intensification of urban areas.

“It feels like we have been hung out to dry,” says Councillor Smith.

The Rodney District Council’s head of democracy services, Paul Garbett, says it is not unusual for a councillor to call an extraordinary council meeting, but it still required the support of at least a quarter of the thirteen-member council.

”We have received a request from five councillors, so a meeting will be held on Thursday 8th February from 1.30 p.m.”

Mr Garbett says the meeting will be open to the public.

ENDS

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