9th March 2008

Press release – for immediate use:

Public Meeting and Workshops for the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Auckland Governance

Waiheke islanders who care about local democracy are being urged to put in a submission to the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance and a public meeting and workshops will be held over the next six weeks to help people get them in.

Councillor Denise Roche says the community board funding that was allocated to the Waiheke Island Community Planning Group is to help people use the Royal Commission process to have their say.

“ Since amalgamation with Auckland City in 1989 we haven’t had an opportunity to critique how the system has worked for our community, and clearly a lot of us have got very strong opinions on that.” she says. “With the commission we can all give examples of what has and hasn’t worked for us as well as putting forward our ideas on how the wider Auckland region can be more effectively governed.”

Cr Roche says that Waiheke is alone in all the wards in Auckland that is actively promoting participation in the Royal Commission process.

“ No other community boards in Auckland City are publicly promoting the Commission. We’re very fortunate with the planning group to have committed people who are willing to take the lead in driving up the issue,” she says. “It’s a tight time frame but I am confident that the workshops and meetings will result in a number of good high quality considered submissions.”

The public meeting will be held at the Ostend Hall on Saturday 29th March from 2pm – 4pm and four-hour workshops are scheduled for Saturday 5th April and Saturday 12th April at 1pm at Artworks theatre.

In the meantime an information pack and standard submission forms are available from the local library and service centre and the Waiheke Island Community Planning Group have set up a blogsite at waihekercs.wordpress.com

Submissions need to reach the Commission by 4pm on April 22nd.

ENDS

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