Just a few voters may trigger poll

Commission chairman Basil Morrison

Triggering Hawke's Bay's amalgamation referendum could be as simple as securing a couple of signatures on a piece of paper - or involve a major campaign to get thousands to sign a petition.

Either way, a binding poll to decide the future of local government in the region appears a certainty, with the pro-amalgamation camp saying it will support a process that could potentially derail its ambitions.

The Local Government Commission released its final amalgamation proposal on Tuesday, meaning the region's five councils will be merged late next year unless a majority of electors vote against the idea in a binding poll.

That poll will occur only if 10 per cent of those on the electoral role in any one of the affected council areas sign a petition demanding it.

Because the proposal involves a slight shift in Hawke's Bay's western boundary, the "affected areas" include rural pockets of the Taupo and Rangitikei districts.

Commission chairman Basil Morrison said this week there were believed to be only "20-odd" affected electors in the Rangitikei District and a few dozen in the Taupo District.

That meant the signatures of either two or three Rangitikei electors would be enough to trigger the poll.

At the other end of the scale, triggering a poll via the region's largest affected area - Hastings District, where about 52,000 electors are registered - would require a petition with about 5200 signatures.

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said other than the possibility of finding three anti-amalgamation Rangitikei electors, another "easy" option for triggering the poll was a Wairoa petition, which would require fewer than 600 signatures from a district that was strongly opposed to the commission's proposal.

To achieve the same result in Central Hawke's Bay would require close to 1000 signatures, or about 4200 in Napier.

Ian Dick, chairman of Democratic Action Association, said the anti-amalgamation lobby group would meet over the next few days to discuss its strategy now the commission's final proposal had been released.

A Better Hawke's Bay, the pro-amalgamation group whose proposal to the commission in February 2013 set it on a path to this week's decision, said on Tuesday it would promote a petition.

ABHB chairwoman Rebecca Turner would not elaborate yesterday, saying the group was not yet ready to release details of its strategy.

Any petition demanding a poll must be in the hands of the commission within 60 working days of the release of this week's final proposal.

The commission has said a poll would take place about three months after it received and verified a petition, meaning it would likely be held some time between late September at the earliest and early December at the latest.