Amalgamation lobby group hits road

Lizzie Russell, Amalgamate Hawke's Bay co-ordinator, with the caravan she will be using to promote its website and cause. Photo / Duncan Brown

The lobby group which forced the amalgamation debate on Hawke's Bay by putting a proposal to the Local Government Commission is hitting the road in an attempt to get merger plans across the line if the issue goes to a referendum.

It comes in the form of a caravan bedecked in black-and-white Magpies colours, and which lobbyists A Better Hawke's Bay call an "info hub".

On the amalgamation wagon for almost five years, including putting the proposal to the commission in February 2013, A Better Hawke's Bay says it will take the caravan to every corner of the region from Mahia to Takapau in the next few months "with plenty of of opportunity for conversation and questions on the subject".

Although the commission is currently in a 2015 first-quarter process to survey 2000 residents and ratepayers in the merger proposal region, including Wairoa, Napier, Hastings and Central Hawke's Bay, the campaign was effectively kicked-off by a full-page advertisement placed in Hawke's Bay Today by Hastings District Council last month, promoting its stance supporting amalgamation.

Last year the commission held public hearings on a draft proposal for a merger of the four councils and Hawke's Bay Regional Council and revised its position, mainly on representation issues.

The commission has reserved its position on ring-fencing of debt to within the areas of the current councils, pending further details from the local bodies on liabilities.

It has asked for the details by the end of next month, after which it will decide whether to form a final proposal, which would then be likely go to public vote in a referendum.

In the last vote on the issue, a Napier-Hastings amalgamation was rejected by voters 15 years ago, with strong opposition in Napier but strong support in Hastings.

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said while he "personally" thinks it's inappropriate for the councils to become involved in the campaign, Hastings council had "thrown down the gauntlet" and Napier City Council would have to respond - "which it will do in the next few weeks".

He said A Better Hawke's Bay, an independent group of mainly business interests, is trying to influence the public ahead of the commission's survey.

"We are still waiting for the process to be completed," he said.

"They're desperate," he said.

"Now they're trying to run it like a fun fair."