Auckland Council dodge $1 million bill

Auckland Council has dodged a million-dollar bill to alert residents to incoming changes to housing intensification, Newshub reports. By 20 August, all of the country’s largest councils must let local people know about plan changes linked to the government’s new development standards. “Given Auckland’s size, doing this by post would have cost an estimated $1 million. However, we are always looking to reduce costs to ratepayers and so have chosen to do this using our existing rates bills and e-rates notices, at no extra cost to ratepayers,” Auckland Council said.