Report: Wairarapa 'too weak' alone

Backers of the rejected Wairarapa Unitary Authority proposal may well consider the devil was in the detail when reading up on reasons why the Local Government Commission came down against the idea and instead recommended Wairarapa throws in its lot with a Wellington super-city.

The commission has published a 288-page technical report backed up with a 52-page summary document on reorganisation of local government in Wellington, including the reasons why Wairarapa's unitary authority proposal was turned away.

On financial grounds, the commission determined that a shortfall the three district councils in Wairarapa had estimated when putting forward their joint application of $2 million a year actually would be closer to $10 million.

Likewise, it determined there would be significantly greater costs for the people of Wairarapa than they were already having to meet when "they already pay among the highest rates per person in Wellington region".

Going alone would mean Wairarapa would have less ability to share the cost of public transport, flood protection and other regional functions with the rest of the greater Wellington region.

More specifically, there would be risks to public transport due to the ongoing need to rely on councils agreeing to a funding formula for a single network.

The commission considered a unitary authority would penalise Wairarapa when it came to economic development, particularly by limiting the ability to progress initiatives such as the Wairarapa Water Use Project.

The commission made a point of noting any council set up as a result of reorganisation would be expected to be run effectively "not just in the short-term but over a span of decades".

Its primary finding was the conclusion that commission members were not reasonably satisfied a Wairarapa Unitary Authority would have the resources now and into the future to effectively work as a territorial local body and a regional council.

One of the Local Government Commission's findings likely to be considered more controversial was the conclusion that by reorganising in such a manner as to allow Wairarapa to stand alone from the rest of Wellington would be dividing a regional community of interest.

This assumption was based on the belief there is a degree of interdependence among the people and towns in Wairarapa with the rest of the Wellington region and that link had to be "supported by local government arrangements," the commission said.

"The people of Wairarapa have a significant interest in regional transport decisions in particular," the commission contended.

Having found a Wairarapa Unitary Authority was "not a reasonably practicable option," the commission dismissed any notion arrangements among multiple unitary authorities in Wellington would work.

The only "reasonably practicable option" it identified was one directly elected regional body for Wellington region, or a super-city, as it is commonly referred to.