On Wednesday, 23 August the Wairarapa Times Age ran the front page headline “Calls for Amalgamation” and discussed how there was a working group of councillor’s from Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa looking at possible amalgamation.
This working group was set up soon after the October local body elections and our Deputy Mayor, councillor Sadler-Futter and councillor Bosley were the South Wairarapa representatives along with the deputy mayors from Carterton and Masterton and a councillor from each town.
The issues the working group were to look at were:
A. Representation and Engagement;
B. Managing Growth and Adapting to change; and
C. Driving efficiency in service delivery.
Over the last ten months, the working group has met a number of times and the focus has moved more towards merger/amalgamation, as opposed to the three topics above.
During August, the working group wanted elected members from the three Wairarapa councils to give support/direction to a statement of “commit to planning to merge” all three councils!
The SWDC councillor’s met at the end of August to discuss this requested commitment “to plan to merge” and there was no support for this. Councillors wanted to have more information available, such as: what would the benefits be for ratepayers if a merger occurred, what are the risks to ratepayers in a merger among many other questions.
My personal concerns were that I did not want to be railroaded into a decision without receiving more information.
Particularly I want to know how our communities will be represented at a larger council table, how will our residents and ratepayers have a voice and input into decision-making and what are the pros and cons of a merger or amalgamation.
My view is that once elected members have all the available information, then we would be talking to our communities to see what their views were on merger/amalgamation before progressing the discussion any further.
Some of us will remember the Auckland Super City proposal in the early 2000’s and then the implementation in November 2010. That proposal was supposed to bring cost efficiencies for ratepayers. However, that has not occurred, with cost blowouts over the last 14 years that their current mayor and council are now struggling with.
From 2013 to 2017 there was the proposal for a Wellington Super City including the Wairarapa and then, when that fell over, a proposal was promoted for a Wairarapa Unitary Authority, combining the three District Councils and the Wairarapa portion of Greater Wellington Regional Council.
Again that proposal was not accepted by residents.
(If anyone would like to read the documents relating to these proposals, I can share them with you.)
After the SWDC councillors did not support the statement to “commit to planning to merge,” Carterton and Masterton councils decided to continue working together and start planning towards merger. The working group involving SWDC representatives has dissolved.
If more information on the pros and cons, benefits to ratepayers, costs and risks etc of merging the South Wairarapa with Carterton and Masterton councils, is shared with SWDC councillor’s then I imagine we will share that with you all to see if there is an appetite for merging. However, until that occurs I will not be railroaded into agreeing to go down the merger/amalgamation route.
Lambing has finished for some, while others it is starting and the rain seems to have stopped for the last four days….. Hopefully the sun stays around to help the lambs, calves and grass to grow. All the best for September, hopefully spring will bring lots of sun and if you wish to contact me to discuss any issues, please email me on aidan.ellims@swdc.govt.nz
