Editorial: Time for ALL to talk merger

OPINION: Local body elections are eight months away and the people of the Waikato should already be giving thought to the type of communities they would like to see their councils fashion for them.

The voting in October will be more poignant this time around – we are in for a radical revamp. The Hamilton, Waipa and Waikato councils will almost certainly not exist as we know them at the 2013 elections.

It was announced over the holiday period by Bob Simcock and Alan Livingston, the mayors of Hamilton City and Waipa District respectively, that there would be an investigation into forming a Waikato super council. Their plan is to merge their two councils along with their Waikato counterpart. Waikato Mayor Peter Harris, consumed by the work that has to go into reshaping his council to include the bits of Auckland the Super City planners there have jettisoned, seemed less enthusiastic.

The three councils have, however, been working behind the scenes for some time on areas of commonality. A permanent coming together is a natural progression.

It is, though, much too early to think that that is all that needs changing.

Messrs Simcock and Livingston are canny operators. They will no doubt be trying to form an alliance that suits them and head off moves from central government to make other provinces go the way of Auckland.

But the options for amalgamation in the Waikato are many and the investigation must be wide.

Former Hamilton Mayor Margaret Evans, meantime, continues to push her idea of a Waikato council that merges nine from around the region. Waikato University academics have been asked to look at the possibilities.The justification for some form of change is easy to see. Across nine councils from Taupo to the Bombay Hills, we average one council worker to 181 people, compared with one to 224 in the Greater Auckland council area. Council staff costs in the Waikato have rocketed from $116 million in 2007 to a projected $154 million this year. Rates in the Waikato council area jumped 26 per cent since 2007.

It is indisputable change is needed.

Waipa councillor Michael Cox, in his column on yesterday's Waikato Times opinion page, called for an independent group to be brought together to conduct the Waikato investigation. Local politicians would be too ponderous and self-interested, he said.

But people in Auckland are angry because there has been a total lack of political accountability as decisions were forced on them. Our leaders should be given first chance at sorting our future. We vote them in to make these decisions.

But the discussion has to be wider than the amalgamation of three councils. What of that most decried layer of local government, the regional council? Can benefits for ratepayers by maximised on a larger scale? Why should Hamilton be more aligned to Cambridge and Ngaruawahia than Morrinsville (which is in Matamata-Piako)? This debate has to be region-wide.

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