Go figure.
Then on the other hand we have the "gang of four" - Tom Belford, Rick Barker, Rex Graham and Peter Beaven - who were elected in the main because of their opposition to the way the RWSS was unfolding, so you'd expect them to be very much pro-environment in recognising the importance of a distinct protection agency.
Again, not so. Belford and Barker in particular have been vocal about their support for amalgamation - in short, for doing themselves out of a job.
And while I've heard and read a great deal from them about why a single council would supposedly work better, I have noticed very little on the subject of how they envisage properly protecting the environment without a dedicated body to do so.
Frankly, this is a contradiction I simply do not understand.
For if "regionalism" delivers better governance, then when it comes to the environment we already have regionalism. Moreover, it's independent in function from everything else. How could you improve that structure?
You can't, and lumping everything together in a unitary authority will inevitably degrade the level of funding and expertise available for proactive environmentalism. Take the checks and balances away and scientific rigour and due care will be forced into the back seat.
Anyone who thinks otherwise either knows nothing of how bureaucracies work, or is running another agenda and doesn't want to front on this unpalatable fact.
To say I'm deeply disappointed by this is an understatement. Strange bedfellows, indeed.
And then there are characters like CHB Mayor Peter Butler, so intent on protecting his own fiefdom he is in danger of suffering backlash. Several CHB residents have told me they're thinking of voting for amalgamation simply to get rid of him.
Of course, as I politely point out, they can do that in a year's time anyway, given enough community will. But reorganise the whole Bay into one council and existing high-profile politicians will, in some ways, gain even greater power.
Personalities shouldn't be the factor that influences. But when all I see - on both sides - is personality politics dominating, I thought it timely, ahead of the last-minute rush, to try to cut across the nonsense and identify what really matters in this vote: keeping it local and robustly protected.
The system we have isn't perfect, but you can easily change the participants. In the big brother system we'd get if amalgamated that would be much harder to do.
Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet.
