Campaigners for a single council covering the Western Bay of Plenty want to bypass the Local Government Commission to avoid the threat of a costly "big is beautiful" amalgamation being imposed on the region.
The high-profile group has called for an immediate streamlining and merging of the Western Bay District and Tauranga City councils' senior and middle management as a preliminary step to the first unified elections in 2019.
Property developer Paul Adams, commercial lawyer John Gordon and professional director Graeme Horsley have set out how the merger could happen outside of the Local Government Commission system.
They warned that unless the two councils were proactive in coming together, then central government was likely to act in forming a unitary council between the Western Bay and Eastern Bay. A unitary council would also take in the functions of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
The group said a unitary council would be detrimental to Western Bay and Tauranga ratepayers because the deprivation and higher unemployment in the Eastern Bay would need to be carried by ratepayers of any new structure.
