Submissions on the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill

The Auckland Governance Legislation Committee has received 2489 total submissions, 800 of which are oral submissions, 679 are written submissions and 1010 form submissions, on the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill, committee chairperson Hon John Carter announced today. The closing date for submissions was 5pm on Friday, 26 June 2009 but the committee has agreed to accept nearly 70 late submissions that arrived until the end of Friday to give as many people as possible the opportunity to be heard.

Hearings of evidence will begin on Monday, 6 July in Auckland City and the committee plans to travel to all seven of the Auckland regions, including Waiheke Island with subcommittee visits to marae and Great Barrier Island, over the coming weeks. During the hearing process throughout the Auckland region, the committee will be meeting from 9am to 9pm, Monday through Friday. Those people who made individual and group submissions on the bill requesting to be heard will be contacted by staff to arrange their appearance.

The committee requests that when appearing before the committee, submitters know that their submission will have been read by the committee members and they should briefly highlight the major points of their submission, or add new comments, and leave some time for committee questions.

“We want everyone who has expressed a view by making a written submission to get a chance to present to the committee as part of an inclusive process,” Mr Carter said.