Mayor fires salvos and promises improvements after Puhoi visit

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown called for emergency management to be decentralised after visiting flood-ravaged Puhoi to see slips and storm damage for himself. Accompanied by Rodney Councillor Greg Sayers, Brown spoke to a number of people involved on the front line in Puhoi, including fire chief Russell Green and contractors from Hodz Drainage. Speaking exclusively to Mahurangi Matters after the early morning visit on Tuesday, January 31, the Mayor praised local residents, businesses and contractors for how they had tackled the massive clean-up over the weekend.

“The community has really got stuck in and they’ve been amazing,” he said. However, Brown said communication during Friday’s floods had been dreadful and even he had struggled to find out what was going on.

“We’ve learned that a lot of central management that I’ve inherited is not such a good idea,” he said. “Communication has been dreadful and I’ve been accused of being the worst possible person, because I couldn’t find out what was happening either. I think we have to get decentralising.”

Brown was critical of both Council and Auckland Transport (AT) for being urbanfocused.

“Everyone at AT and Auckland Council has been so centralised in the city they forget that 60% of the area is rural, but I’m a town and country boy so we’ll redress that. I want to put some rural people on the board.

“It takes a bit of reminding to them that we’re a council for rural areas,” he said.

“I’m accused of being an angry person –well, I’m an angry person because they’re not looking after people properly.”

The Mayor said more people doing practical things more regularly was what was required, rather than lots of people writing reports.

“There’s too much money spent on management and not enough on doing things,” he said.

“I’m quite happy to upset those people and say go and find something else to do. I want stuff done, not reports written –people with practical experience doing things on the ground.”

However, he also said people needed to take a degree of responsibility for their own property and where it was situated.

“People do have to do some things themselves,” he said. “If someone rings and says the drain is blocked outside my house, I’d say get a shovel and go and do it, if you can. We don’t pay rates for someone to be standing outside your house 24/7.

“And if you’ve chosen to live in a low-lying area, or live above cliffs, you’ve got to take even more of an interest.”

Brown warned Rodney residents not to hold out hope for lots of road sealing under current budget restraints, but he maintained that better construction and regular maintenance was the way forward.

“If people had unsealed roads that actually worked, they would be okay,” he said. “I’ve lived on these roads for years and know how to build them properly.

“The way they handle loose metal roads is so stupid it’s hard to believe, because the AT board doesn’t have one transport expert, one engineer or anyone who lives rurally and that’s going to change, and I’m going to piss some people off to make that change.

“I don’t care about that – if you’re going to make an omelette, you’ve got to break some eggs.

“We need proper roads that are maintained. I’m going to have to fight to get what are practical, sensible solutions that work.”