Governance Matters with Peter McKinlay

Amalgamation is coming to a council near you – or is it? A group of Tauranga's leading business people will ask the Local Government Commission to amalgamate Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty.

They are quite deliberately just asking for a larger council. This is very different from what's happened elsewhere.

Usually, the push has been for a unitary council; something which combines both the regional council and local councils.

Asking that Tauranga and Western Bay become a unitary council triggers very complex decisions. What happens to ownership of the Port of Tauranga? What about regional council activity in the Eastern Bay of Plenty and Rotorua? Should those councils become unitary councils? Do they have the scale, capability and capacity?

Staying away from the unitary council option looks sensible if you want to avoid all those complications. But can this be done?

The first thing the LGC must do, if it decides to consider the request, is publicly advertise for other proposals.

It's almost certain someone will put up the idea of a unitary council for the Western Bay – or for the whole of the Bay of Plenty.

So far, with the proposals it is had to deal with, it looks as if the LGC prefers unitary councils.

Once the LGC has received and considered other proposals, it then comes out with its own draft proposal.

We shouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be something very different from the original request to merge Tauranga and the Western Bay.

The real question this raises is whether it makes sense to trigger a process which is not locally controlled.

Wouldn't it make better sense to try and negotiate agreement across the Bay of Plenty so a single, agreed approach is put before the LGC for endorsement?