NonprayingMantis: I'm also pretty certain it is a hell of a lot more efficient for the council to pay people to mow all the berms than it would be for 500k households to individually manage their own (whether doing it themselves or paying a company to do it)
Exactly, the speed a made for purpose commercial mower could mow the roadside is dozens of times faster than an individual resident ever could. The council may save $3 million but the cost to the city is far higher in wasted time, severed toes and fingers, rodents, unsightly mess and litter entering the harbour that wasn't picked up by the mower guys. Many people will not or can not mow the roadside.
People in central Auckland want the council to do it and are willing to pay for it but councillors from other parts of the city whose whole civil identity is based on being against central Auckland will stop it out of spite. As Mike Lee said, "outer suburban small-mindedness and parochialism".
Should we diversify this thread to include free domestic rubbish removal in central AK where the poor westies have to not only now their own berms but they have to buy council rubbish bags for weekly collection
The Auckland Council was talking about going to a pay per kg bin collection system. Expect dumping, bin raiding and more litter.