Andrew von Dadelszen Former Regional Councillor

With the establishment of the Auckland Super City, New Zealand now has more than 50 per cent of its population with a unitary structure for local governance.

Integrating regional council functions into the local council structure and getting rid of one level of local governance is a win-win for ratepayers. Despite the naysayers, the sky has not fallen in, and in fact there is strong evidence that serious savings in bureaucratic expenditure has resulted, and it is time that it happened in the Western Bay of Plenty.

Elected local councillors and council staff (regional, city and district) might fear for their jobs, but ratepayers need to demand action immediately. Other regions (Wellington, Northland and Hawke's Bay, to name a few) are moving fast on this, and we need action in the Western Bay too. It just doesn't make sense for Tauranga City and Western Bay of Plenty District Council to run separate administrations, and the amalgamation needs to include the Western end of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council too.

Some will argue that we need a Baywide Coastal Unitary Council (from Waihi Beach to east of Opotiki), but this is just a distraction, and not realistic. The Western Bay already has a population of more than 160,000 and this will continue to grow – projected to reach 198,000 by 2021 and 284,000 by 2051. Regional council staff numbers currently top 288, and with 58.3 per cent of the population residing in Western Bay, we can assume 168 of them work on Western Bay regional issues. Add the 505 Tauranga City staff, plus 162 from Western Bay, and we can easily see rationalisation reducing total staff by at least one third (maybe by half) including two of the three CEOs (total current salaries of the CEOs alone is around $950,000) – so what is the downside? I don't think there is any. Existing unitary councils are not compromising environmental standards, and the savings to ratepayers are far more comprehensive than can be achieved by just ‘shared services'.

One other issue is the regional council's shareholding in the Port of Tauranga. The 54.96 per cent shareholding currently held can be vested on a pro rata basis, giving the new Western Bay Unitary Council a holding of around 32 per cent (54.96 per cent times the population ratio of 58.3 per cent) in the Port shares. This would still be a strong cornerstone shareholding, and could be ring fenced to prevent future councillors from liquidating the shares. The Port shareholding would shore up the currently stretched balance sheets that the individual councils will take into an amalgamation. Amalgamation really is a no-brainer, and needs to happen sooner rather than later. Let's get our local politicians off their comfortable perches, and into affirmative action – now.

If you have a view on these or any other local government issues, I invite you to email me at andrew@vond.co.nz or visit www.vond.co.nz