Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe calls for greater collaboration between councils to find cost savings

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe says having 14 councils within a two-hour drive of Whanganui is not sustainable.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe is pushing for greater collaboration between councils but amalgamations are not on the table - yet.

Tripe said it was a hot topic at last week’s Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) conference in Wellington and some councils around the country were already having conversations.

“New Zealand is a very small country and we are made up of a whole bunch of councils,” he said.

“My encouragement is for all our mayors and elected members to think differently - to think about having scale.

“We need to make our shadow look bigger than we are.”

Tripe said he had conversations with New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom and Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith about exploring a “Western Bight collaboration” in areas such as transport and logistics, the visitor sector and energy.

Economic development agency Whanganui & Partners was already working to connect businesses with a potential offshore wind farm in the South Taranaki Bight.

“There is also subregional collaboration - Rangitīkei, Ruapehu and Whanganui, for example,” Tripe said.

“We share a very similar catchment - from the mountain to the sea - and there will be opportunities in the visitor sector.”

Tripe said he anticipated “the first cabs off the rank” for regional deals - long-term agreements between local government and central government - would be high-growth areas such as Queenstown, the Bay of Plenty and the wider Hamilton area.

The Government is inviting up to five regions to provide proposals, with the first to be finalised by next year.

“If we want to be second cab off the rank, we need to demonstrate that we are having, and can have, a collaborative approach,” Tripe said.

“The days of turning up alone to see a government minister have gone.”

Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton says "there is a lot of alignment" between Whanganui and Ruapehu because of the Whanganui River.

Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton said amalgamation was not something his council was considering because there were “so many other things on”.

“We are more focused on sharing some of the other services and functions of local government,” he said.

“For example, there is a lot of alignment with Whanganui and the awa through Te Awa Tupua and the legislation around it.

“We see our strength as tourism, and we see Whanganui with a strength in future delivery of economic development.”

The council wanted to align itself with neighbouring local authorities for Three Waters reforms and there was a natural progression towards Whanganui, Kirton said.

“If we need to form some sort of allegiance for water reforms, we are always talking to neighbours - Whanganui first.”

The final report from the Review into the Future for Local Government, released last year, recommended two council structures; a unitary model (one council for a region) or a combined network model.

A combined network would retain local councils and mayors but have an additional combined council to carry out “functions that affect the whole region or require specialist capability”.

Tripe said people should not be scared of discussing amalgamation if it did “the right thing for the community”.

He said in any model, subsidiaries needed to be strongly represented.

“The reason you collaborate is to find efficiencies and cost savings, and we can only do so much ourselves.

“There is no doubt the power of collaboration through shared services, a single economic development agency, whatever it might be, is going to reduce rates.”

In Whanganui, residential rates have gone up by an average of 11.2% for 2024/25, with Ruapehu rising by 9% and Rangitīkei by 10.5%.

Rangitīkei Mayor Andy Watson said Three Waters was leading the charge in terms of councils working together.

Rangitīkei Mayor Andy Watson.

He said he was committed to putting a model for a regional council-controlled organisation (CCO) for water delivery in front of elected members.

“The question is whether we engage with all of [the] Horizons [region’s councils] or a subset of them, or go it alone.

“Effectively, what Three Waters CCOs will mean is a wider relationship in seeing how else we can collaborate, and that makes sense.”

However, he did not see that as a precursor to full amalgamation of councils any time soon.

The Rangitīkei public had made the message that it wanted retention of local knowledge “loud and clear”.

Watson said there were a number of things councils could do better together.

“Having district plans and consenting that don’t match with [those of] your next-door neighbours, that’s a pity.

“We do need to work closer together in terms of those compliance costs.”

Regional councils, such as Horizons, focus on areas including natural resource management, biodiversity and biosecurity and regional transport services, while district councils’ responsibilities include roading, sewerage, libraries, town planning and parks.

Speaking to the council’s strategy and policy committee last month, Tripe said there were 14 councils within a two-hour drive of Whanganui and he did not think that was sustainable.

He told the Chronicle this week that meant 14 chief executives, 14 human resources operations and 14 information technology operations.

“My background is in organisational change - finding efficiencies and better ways of doing things - and when I step back and look at how councils run, I think there are a huge amount of efficiencies that are also opportunities.

“You can only do so much in your own organisation and the real prize is around collaborating.”

Palmerston North’s Smith could not be reached for comment.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.