Fran Wilde on Wellington super-city

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: Fran Wilde sees a lot of benefits of a super Wellington council.

There needs to be a lot more information for people to digest before any Wellington super-city referendum is held, pro amalgamation advocate Fran Wilde says.

Just before Christmas, the Local Government Commission issued a draft proposal to create a unitary authority comprising a governing body and eight local boards for the Wellington region.

With submissions closed, after a tight timeframe, the commission will getting out and about hearing views, before coming up with a final proposal which could be voted on via a public referendum.

Ms Wilde, who was guest speaker at an Electra business breakfast at the Southward Car Museum on Wednesday, said more information was needed from the commission about what it was proposing.

"We're saying whatever you come out with, publicise it well, and we need some time between when it's announced and when the referendum is held.

"People who are opposed to this will want a referendum as soon as possible because they know the shorter the time the less information people have.

"My view is we should have a lengthier time before the referendum so people understand it."

She said the region, which was well connected, had a number of challenges ranging from some areas having low or no growth, an aging population, population increase projections especially Kapiti, infrastructure deficit, debt, to economic figures at the lower end of the scale.

Amalgamation was about the future.

"It's about what happens to our region in 20 or 30 years time.

"This is about your grandchildren, it's not about us here today, we have to leave them something better than we've got now."

It wasn't about saving money either.

"It's about getting better regional decision making.

"The commission said locally stuff was working all right, and that shouldn't be tinkered with, but the big decisions, which are cross boundary, need to be managed better."

She said the commission wanted the local boards do as much as possible.

"Basically they will be like the current councils but they won't be doing the big infrastructure and the big planning decisions which are the ones that are difficult for the region."

Ms Wilde, who is chairwoman of Wellington Regional Council, felt local boards should be called local councils, and a local board chair should be a local board mayor.

"People are a lot happier because they know what a council is and they know what a mayor is -- they don't know what a local board is -- they think it's a community board, and they don't know what a board chair is.

"The terminology has been a lot of the problem here."

There was "a lot of scary stuff going around but when you understand the law and how this proposal works, it's not that scary at all".

Capital rating was fairer than land value rating, she said.