Much more control of council controlled organisations (CCOs) has been vested back to the new Auckland City Council says Local Government New Zealand.

President Lawrence Yule says today’s report back of the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill by the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee shows major wins for local democracy.

“Considerable effort has gone into making sure the new council will have greater ability to direct and influence CCOs.”

“The amended bill gives the new council greater ability to remove directors, while a proportion of vacancies will be set aside for councils to make appointments.”

“This goes a long way towards what we have been advocating for.”

He says the new council must also have an accountability policy for the CCOs.

“This would set out policies around reporting, management of strategic assets and being part of the Local Government Official Information Act.”

‘‘While we don’t support the creation by statute of a Transport CCO, we are pleased its structure will be amended to make it consistent with other CCOs. Additional powers to ensure CCOs’ conform to the council’s overall direction, are welcome."

Other wins come from local boards, with the number extending from between 4 and 9 to 5 and 12.

“This addresses concerns that representation at a community level was seriously weakened in the original bill.”

“It’s also pleasing the select committee has lengthened the consultation period for local boards to consult with communities when preparing draft three year plans. The original proposal was simply impossible to comply with. And clarity of functions of local boards has been extended from six to 18 months.”

Mr Yule says getting Auckland’s governance arrangements right and making the transition is vitally important, not only for the citizens of that city but for New Zealand.

“International research suggests it takes 10 years for a local economy to recover from a major consolidation of this sort.”