Councillors Urge Public to Have Their Say on Reorganisation

Whangarei District Councillors today urged the community to have its say on a review of Northland's local government structure.

And they asked the public to keep an open mind and reminded them that it was the Northland Regional Council which started the process of reviewing Northland's local government.

An independent report by local government experts McKinlay Douglas Ltd, of Tauranga, has recommended that for Northland to progress, it needs to have only one layer of local government.

At present there are two layers, the regional council and the district councils, and McKinlay Douglas has concluded that the formation of one or two unitary authorities, which combine the functions of regional and district local government, is in Northland's best interests.

The McKinlay Douglas report has been presented to a number of public meetings throughout Northland, and there is now a consultation phase until April 30 in which the public can make submissions on the options for Northland local government.

The submissions will be heard by an independent person, who is likely to be a retired judge.

Cr Phil Halse told today's Whangarei District Council meeting that the community needed to keep an open mind on the options before it.

"It is important that people don't go into this with blinkers on, and that they look at the big picture.

"This is not about council versus council, it is about benefit to the ratepayers and we will get the best results from people being open minded.

"The big picture is that Northland does not get its fair share of national resources. Some areas have all their roads sealed; in Whangarei District we have 52 percent sealed and in Kaipara it's 30 percent," Cr Halse said.

He noted the current local government system was 20 years old, and reform was well overdue. Since the 1989 reforms, the advent of the internet, globalisation, cellphones and climate change, as some examples, had made a huge impact on the world.

"It is important ratepayer groups are given the right information and that they don't get tangled up in single issues. I applaud the three mayors for bringing the debate on reorganisation forward, and I look forward to the submissions," he said.

Cr Warwick Syers reminded the community that it was the regional council which began the debate with a submission to the WDC LTCCP last May which stated: "WDC should commit to working with the regional council, Far North District Council and Kaipara District Council to review the way local government is carried out in Northland."

Cr Syers said all four council leaders agreed to the review.

"Now the regional council has walked away from it, which is ridiculous. The efficiencies and the benefits to be gained from reorganisation are huge.

"This is not about one council taking over another; the reality is that the two layers morph into one body which is a totally new entity.

"The recommended one level of local body engagement with the community is the logical thing. The formation of a customer-friendly body which is a one-stop shop for resource consents would rid us of the problem many people have struck of having two bodies which sometimes contradict each other," Cr Syers said.

He said regional councillors and district councillors could all stand for the new body if the public decided there should be a unitary authority, so he wasn't sure what regional councillors were afraid of.
For further information: Cr Phil Halse or Cr Warwick Halse, phone: 09 430 4200