Wellington won't become a super city anytime soon, but local MP Grant Robertson and Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown says there's still scope for changes to the current council structure.
A Local Government Commission proposal suggested nine councils from across the lower North Island be merged into one, but it was opposed by 90 percent of submitters.
Mr Robertson's relieved it's been scrapped, but isn't totally opposed to change.
"I think there's scope for there to be a different configuration of councils that could see a reduction, but I think that's got to be something that works in reality. One huge super city the size of the state of Israel is not going to work in Wellington," the high-ranking Labour MP told RadioLIVE.
Despite opposition to what Ms Wade-Brown called the 'uber-council' idea, 40 percent of submissions were in favour of some kind of change – as is she.
"I think it's perfectly sensible that the three Wairarapa councils become one council," says Ms Wade-Brown.
"We're also looking on this side of the Rimutakas – potentially it could be the Hutt Valley instead of two councils as one, then Wellington and Porirua, and Kapiti should decide whether to come in or go north, I guess."
The biggest problem with the Local Government Commission's proposal was its sheer size, she says.
"I've always said that Mirimar to Masterton is just too far for effective local democracy… It was huge. It was bigger than the square acreage of Auckland."
The region's Mayors will be meeting later this month, and the future of local democracy in the lower North Island will be a hot topic.
"The Mayors do meet regularly at no great cost to the ratepayer, and we do catch up and we'll certainly be doing that before the end of the month to look at probably a couple of ways forward: an enhanced status quo where we share more services, perhaps the three-council model, which would see the end of the regional council," says Ms Wade-Brown.
3 News
source: newshub archive
