Merger decision 'imminent'

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton

A decision on amalgamation is "now imminent", the Local Government Commission has told Hawke's Bay's mayors.

Commission chief executive Sandra Preston wrote to the mayors on Monday last week, in response to a letter from the region's four mayors and Hawke's Bay Regional Council chairman Fenton Wilson.

The letter, sent to Ms Preston the same day, asked for an update on the commission's progress regarding its proposal to merge Hawke's Bay's five councils into a single unitary local authority.

It was sent after a meeting of the region's "mayor forum", held in Napier the same day. It followed a statement from the commission to Hawke's Bay Today on May 7 that commissioners anticipated delivering a decision "in the next few weeks".

Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Peter Butler said, with Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule alone among the local government leaders in supporting amalgamation, a decision from the commission was required before the region could progress with work on a unified strategy for economic and social progress.

"We're not going to get unity until we get a reply from the Local Government Commission," he said.

Mr Butler said in a "position paper" updating its draft amalgamation proposal, released in November last year, the commission said it would release its decision in March or April.

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said he agreed a decision was required from the commission before regionwide planning could progress.

"Because the process has taken so long, with the Local Government Commission dithering around, it's ripping the Bay apart, rather than doing what it was intended to do," he said.

Mr Yule said a review of the regional economic development strategy was under way and all the councils were involved, but he agreed a decision on amalgamation was needed for full progress to be made.

"If amalgamation happens, forming a plan to advance the region economically will be one of the principal things that it does," he said.

"By the time the regional economic development strategy review is finished, hopefully we'll know what's happening with amalgamation and that will either be used by the amalgamated council or it will be used in a non-amalgamated way."

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said the region was "already starting to get some runs on the board" in terms of regional development through the inter-sectorial group, a non-political forum which includes politicians and senior bureaucrats from councils and government agencies.

"We're all working together. This idea that Lawrence and I can't and don't work together is just nonsense," he said.

"You just need to ask anybody who sits around the table of that inter-sectorial group."

Mr Wilson said that, after months of a lack of a clear direction from the commission, he believed amalgamation was "dead in the water".

"But the drivers of the discussion haven't gone away.

"We need to use what has generally been the negative energy of the amalgamation discussion to turn some things around."