Rural residents would benefit from a merger with Kaipara district, an investigation by  local government finance and policy analyst Larry Mitchell.

 Kaipara District Council was a top performer, he said. A boundary change moving Northern and Western Wards from current Rodney DC to Kaipara would have a positive benefit for Ratepayers in those rural areas.

Commissioned by the Kaipara District council , Larry Mitchell reported that Kaipara  district "stands up well when compared with all councils," when compared to the Rodney District Council and the group of four northern councils.

"The report was motivated by Kaipara’s wish to assemble good data that its proposition that it is a cost-effective ‘good’ unit of local government operating under difficult service delivery conditions," he says.

Average residential rates per annum were Kaipara $1021, Far North $1637, Whangarei $1612 and about $2000 for Rodney.

As Rodney District Council had never participated in the 'Napier City annual rating survey' as did Whangarei, he had to estimated the Rodney figure from available data, he said.

Larry Mitchell reporter that Kaipara’s rates are the lowest of the group of four northern districts and are among the lowest in New Zealand. Rates increases during the last five years were 32.8 percent for Kaipara and 43.4 percent for Rodney. Kaipara was a "no frills unit" - in 2008, expenditure per Kaipara ratepayer was 26 % less than Rodney with  per ratepayer debt in Kaipara $2,562 but $6,653 in Rodney.

The report showed interest content in rates bills for Kaipara ratepayers as $225 but Rodney as $565, .

'Politically based battles' may conceal "the fact that a new unit of local government, dubbed Gateway Northland, covering the rural areas of existing Rodney and Kaipara has merit", Larry Mitchell states.

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