$38m loan for new housing

across the three wards reflected the current council’s view of Hauraki as ‘‘one district’’, he said.

‘‘Every six years we’re required by law to look at the number of councillors and wards in the district, and work out how fairly and effectively they represent the number of people that live in each community. A decision also has to be made about whether or not there’s a need for community boards,’’ he said.

He stressed this was just an initial proposal and that the council wanted to know what its communities thought before going any further.

The 12 sitting councillors were approached for comment by but only seven could be reached by deadline.

The general feeling from those seven was that they personally did not have an issue with the proposal, but encouraged community feedback.

Councillor Donald Swales said he would not be standing in the next local elections but his preference would be to keep four councillors in each ward.

He said that with no community boards in the district, there was ‘‘no other layer of political influence’’.

He said part of his preference was because ‘‘Paeroa and Waihi are reasonably compact, but the Plains ward is 48 per cent of the district’s land mass’’.

Cr James Thorp said he personally did not have a problem with the proposal, but also was not against the idea of having four councillors remain in Waihi due to a larger population.

The reduction of councillors ‘‘might encourage new people to stand for council that might not have before’’, he said.

Hauraki District Council communications officer Paula Trubshaw said it was not known what the new salaries could be as they would not be set until next year by the Remuneration Authority.

Submissions on the proposal are open until 5pm, August 3. Te Kauwhata’s growth could soon be boosted even further due to a $38 million boost from the Government.

Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced yesterday that Waikato District Council would receive a $38 million, 10-year interest-free loan.

The loan was to help with investment in wastewater, water reticulation and water treatment to help support the build of around 2800 new homes in the area, Twyford said.

‘‘This is an exciting announcement, we have to build more homes for our people,’’ he said from one of Te Kauwhata’s new housing developments.

‘‘And it’s something that as a country we’ve failed to do and the consequences of not building enough homes are plain for everybody to see.

‘‘So I’m very pleased to be announcing that the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) in partnership with WDC is making this crucial investment in infrastructure.’’

Waikato District mayor Allan Sanson called it a ‘‘watershed day’’.

‘‘What it has actually helped done is help facilitate this type of growth in places like Te Kauwhata.’’

‘‘This money also gives us a saving to our ratepayers of around $18 million over 10 years in interest payments, so that is actually a big saving to this community.’’

However, Te Kauwhata local and Waikare Marae chairman Robert Tukiri was sceptical.

‘‘We’re concerned about the lack of affordable housing in this town, you can’t get a property under half a million dollars,’’ Tukiri said.

‘‘I want to know if there’s going to be an opportunity to buy with the way things are going.

‘‘We’re getting chased out of town basically when you get things like that, where do the locals go?’’