Friday, March 29, 2024

ALTERNATIVE VIEW: Model local government on feds

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Even though I’ll always be a Mainland South Islander I do enjoy living in Wairarapa. It is handy to Wellington and Palmerston North and close enough to Napier.
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The people are great, property prices are reasonable and we have great schools and superb health care.

Note I said Wairarapa and not Masterton. While our doctor and accountant practice in Masterton, our lawyer and dentist are in Carterton. I’ve drinking mates in Greytown and Martinborough so I’m a Wairarapa person.

The issue is that the Local Government Commission has recommended the Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa councils merge, which I think is an excellent idea.

Wairarapa has just 43,600 people in total. It is about half the population of Palmerston North and just 3% of Auckland. Numerically, we’re insignificant.

What’s worse is that we have three councils – Masterton the biggest with 24,600 people, Carterton with 8900 and South Wairarapa with 10,100.

Each has a mayor, chief executive, accountant, planner and so it goes. Further, we have 27 councillors all doing their bit. We don’t need it.

The commission identified the areas where locals would benefit from a merger.

They included a saving of $10 million over 10 years, a stronger, more united voice for the region, it would be easier and cheaper for companies and community groups to do business, council decision-making would be simplified and the new body would be more effective at delivering infrastructure.

They’re strong reasons for amalgamation. So, to me, amalgamation is logical, makes good economic sense and simplifies governance. Not so the knockers and the patch preservers.

We had a letter to the editor claiming a person would be forced to sell their house if the amalgamation went ahead. How that is remotely possible I have no idea.

An anti-amalgamation lobby came out of the sticks calling itself Wairarapa Voice; it used to be Carterton Voice. I refer to it as a fringe group.

It did, however, claim “Masterton only seems interested in raw power to get what they want. Placing disproportionate power in the hands of Masterton voters and politicians will ensure the accelerated demise of the rest of Wairarapa.”

That’s pure rubbish.

We live further away from Masterton than Carterton is and we’re really happy with the council and its democratic approach.

Carterton has just 8900 residents. It is pifflingly small and irrelevant in the overall ball game.

It is in their interest to be part of a far larger group, one with some muscle.

The suggestion that Masterton wants to promote itself at the expense of the rest of Wairarapa is absurd.

From a farming perspective we don’t have Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa Federated Farmers we have Wairarapa Feds. They deal with the farming problems of the entire area not just one little part and they do it well.

If anyone wants a reason for combined muscle you just have to consider the Wellington rate grab to build a grand new indoor arena for the arts, which I have absolutely no intention of subsidising as I’m forced to do with the stadium.

While 42,000 people have some influence, 8000 don’t.

Mind you, there must be something in the water at Carterton as the vibes coming out of the area suggest amalgamation would be okay provided the headquarters was in Carterton.

What a ridiculously stupid and puerile approach. It shows the level of debate and understanding in the town.

Who cares where any HQ is? If you want a central location then Gladstone would be the place.

What the internecine Carterton position does is to reinforce the petty tribalism that has no place in a modern world.

To their credit Federated Farmers labelled the office location a distraction, suggesting the debate was about amalgamation, end of story.

Also, logic would suggest there would be offices located throughout Wairarapa and meetings would be held throughout the district.

The knockers are ignoring history. Until recently South Wairarapa consisted of Greytown, Featherston and Martinborough councils. Does anyone want to go back to that? Does anyone want to return to the bad old days of city and county councils? I don’t think so.

Mind you, what did concern me was the commission’s recommendation concerning a transition board with two members from Masterton, two from Carterton and two from South Wairarapa.

Democracy is about one person one vote and giving an outfit a third the size of Masterton the same voting power is both bizarre and undemocratic.

So, what I want is the better public services a single body can provide. I want one set of rules and regulations over the area and I don’t want the expensive duplication of three councils.

I want a region with more capacity and capability and a single council can achieve that.

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