Pre-emptive strike over council merger talks

Steve Chadwick

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council intends to take a lead role on the issue of amalgamating the Bay's local authorities, saying it might launch a pre-emptive strike with its own proposal.

The regional council says it has been forced to set aside its neutral position after a group of Tauranga business people, led by property developer Paul Adams, announced they intended to apply to the Local Government Commission to amalgamate the Tauranga City Council and Western Bay District Council.

Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick said she had been informed of the move by regional council chairman Doug Leeder but no such move had been made in the Rotorua district.

The regional council responded to the group's proposal by starting work on preparing a report on local government reorganisation options for the Bay.

Regional council chief executive Mary-Anne Macleod said they needed to be ready in case an application was lodged.

Otherwise, they would have only 20 working days to respond to the commission.

Rotorua's two regional councillors, Neil Oppatt and Lyall Thurston, also supported acting quickly and not waiting until someone else put a proposal on the table.

Mr Oppatt said the council should also be talking to those promoting reorganisation proposals to explain how it could affect the rest of the Bay but he opposed a pre-emptive strike to the Local Government Commission without the support of the region's councils.

Mr Thurston said they needed to fast-track research that was independent, scientific and well done.

Mr Adams said the group intended to lodge its reorganisation proposal with the commission before the general election in September saying it was gathering all the information needed to put the case, drawing on the skills of lawyers, accountants and people with an understanding of local government. He said merging the two councils made compelling sense but it would not be a unitary authority which also took in the functions of the regional council.

Mrs Chadwick said the issue was one for the communities of Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty to consider.

"The point I would reiterate however is the critical importance of retaining 'localism' and leadership in local government and by that I mean local democracy and local leadership making local decisions for local communities," she said.