What about living within our means?

DEADLINE: Wairarapa residents can submit a submission on the forms available from council offices before March 2.

Wellington has lost its mojo, according to Greg Moyle and Sir Bob Harvey, two leading advocates for the Wellington Super City concept. From this I deduct that it could well be that it is Wellington which needs Wairarapa not Wairarapa that needs Wellington.

Predictably, Sir Bob also said the Auckland Super City was working well. Yes, it is working well for the few at the top but working badly for the vast bulk of ordinary taxpayers who are supporting them. The fact is that the number of council bureaucrats in Auckland earning over $100,000 a year has increased by 50 per cent in the past two years.

It will be the same for the Wellington Super City - top-heavy, highly-paid bureaucrats.

At the meeting with Sir Bob on Tuesday in Masterton, he was asked whether small business contractors were being pushed out of the market. He said, "Not to my knowledge." Sir Bob may be interested to know that in Auckland the result of the Super City merger was that the council decided to award contracts for cleaning, mowing, road works and pipe laying for the whole city. The little guys couldn't tender and had to lay off 30 to 60 per cent of their staff. This is not good for the economy and not good for small businesses, both of which the government are anxious to promote.

When I heard that the Wellington commission had made a mistake and under-calculated the cost of setting up the Wellington Super City to the tune of $26 million, my confidence and trust-barometer took a steep dive. Now it is going to cost $210 million just to set the whole thing up. Are we expected to believe that this will be the last cost overrun? And where is the old maxim of living within our means?

Once this think-big project starts there will come a point of no return where the only option will be to keep going spending more and more ratepayers' money. The people on the commission who've made these decisions could well not be around in 15, 20, 30 years time to pick up the pieces.

More alarmingly, what will Wellington do with our hospital services in order to preserve their own? It's no skin off their noses if vulnerable and ill Wairarapa people have to trail over the Rimutakas for medical services that should belong in our hospital here.

Alastair Scott says he'd rather be in the Super City tent than outside in the rain. It would seem that his tent could have a good few holes in it. This Wellington Super City plan is far from watertight.

To save ourselves pain later, it would a very good move if everyone made the effort to get to the council offices, sign the form, and give it to the council staff. They will forward your submission on before the deadline date of March 2.Joan TolmieMasterton

Be very wary

A recent article in the Dompost "City council details huge spending plans" (February 18) is surely something to make Wairarapa wary of joining. A film library may be useful to all, but an indoor arena and runway work would be of questionable benefit from our perspective. A larger logging wharf will be needed by 2020 to cope with mature radiata, if still sold as a basic commodity.

No mention of that.

Comparisons with Auckland don't help decision making.

David Lawrence
Martinborough

Please clarify

"Business Group Backs Capital Super City"

Your story in last Friday's paper implied strong support for the Local Government Commission's draft proposal to create a Super City. Wairarapa Chamber of Commerce CEO Stephanie Gundersen-Reid said her organisation's surveys "conducted since December 2014" showed 65 per cent support from members for a greater Wellington Council.

This needs further explaining.

The Chamber of Commerce has 220 members.

Two surveys were sent out on December 10, 2014 and January 20, 2015. Just 22 per cent responded, that is, about 45 members, to both surveys, but this was hardly an ideal time to conduct a survey, being the Christmas/holiday season.

Because only one reply per business was allowed (as opposed to multiple replies from several individuals within the business), double-ups may have been included in that response. That is, different individuals but from the same member business may have responded to both surveys and been counted twice. We don't know because your story doesn't clarify this.

What we do know is that this unrepresentative "survey" has been extrapolated to make it appear that out of the entire region's business community (more than 5700 business units including farms) 65 per cent "across the Wairarapa" support amalgamating with Wellington and Kapiti Coast.

That doesn't seem to be the situation. At best, around 27 Wairarapa Chamber of Commerce member businesses support a draft proposal for amalgamation with Wellington.

However, Gundersen-Reid is correct about one thing - the decision is about the future of our region.

That means we're entitled to all the information behind announcements and articles such as this.

Deborah Coddington
Martinborough

Face extinction?

The Super City Wellington has been an enigma so far, and I have not yet seen any figures that make sense, and least of all from Local Government Commission. What are they trying to do; make a more efficient region, or, make a new empire? Sadly the latter seems more likely.

On February 18, Sir Bob Harvey and Greg Moyle came all the way from Auckland to tell us that their Super City was working well and that we had to take the opportunity to make the Wellington Super City, or face extinction. We were told we needed a new "mojo"? No question was satisfactorily answered, and Sir Bob also said "it was a gamble"?

Contacting a few people in Auckland to get their evaluation of Auckland Super City revealed some disturbing facts.

Many rates are up 30 per cent, it is nigh impossible to find or talk to council people, some services have disappeared including mowed grass verges. The majority felt worse off.

Efficiency is the best goal in my opinion but trying to merge the whole region is nonsense.

To me, Wairarapa has very different needs from Wellington City. From my experience, Wairarapa people pull together well, and greater efficiencies can be expected from a Wairarapa Unitary Authority which will lead us to a better outcome.

There are two outcomes:

1. Support a Wellington Super City where Wairarapa loses identity;

2. Support a Wairarapa Unitary Authority.

If you do nothing, it will support a Wellington Super City.

Please make your submission to the Local Government Commission and say what you think about a Wellington Super City and forms are available at your local council. This must be done b y Monday.

If you need help to do this, there is plenty available.

Roger Gardner
Masterton

Look at Orewa

I listen with interest to the afternoon session broadcast from NZ on Air as the announcer interviews residents of places in New Zealand, be it a city of thousands, a small village or anywhere in between, such as Orewa, a relatively modern architecturally planned area well north of Auckland City.

I have on several occasions enjoyed visiting this lovely area so was saddened to hear residents telling of their plight since they were forced to become part of greater Auckland.

Their once pristine beach is now infrequently groomed, the grassed areas' quite rampant growth can go for weeks without cutting.

The community centre funded by the residents, for the residents giving them free access to the available services, has been taken over by central Auckland and residents now pay.

The huge increase in rates has many retired residents looking to move elsewhere as they can no longer afford and enjoy the same quality of living.

Thank you David Borman and Greater Wairarapa for your piece in Saturday's Times-Age and, as you say, Wairarapa needs to be managed by Wairarapa's chosen people.

The page 16 letter also in Saturday's Times Age from the chairs of the 21 local Auckland boards to Mayor Brown makes very interesting and thought-provoking reading.

To be heard, Wairarapa residents should submit a submission on the forms available from council offices before March 2 in the hope that our opinions will be noted.Sanchia HookerMasterton

Impact on ratesIf it's going to cost (as per the Times-Age article) $220,000,000 to set up the new Wellington Super City, surely this alone will have some impact upon rates across the whole region. Let's look at this simplistically.

The LGC report states that the funds for this set up will have a payback period of up to nine years.

I feel sure that no council has reserves to meet their share, let alone subsidise others, so the following conditions most probably apply:

Loan = $220,000,000 (I note that this has increased from the initial estimate, so how can we trust this figure, some experts say this could be higher)

Payback Term = 9 years

Interest Rate = 4 per cent (for the size of the loan, we must get some bang for our buck)

From my financial calculator, it indicates a repayment of approximately $28,450,441 per year (including principal and interest) based upon a straight line repayment plan.

With a total population of 471,315 (2013 Census stats) people in the Wellington region (this includes Wairarapa) would mean (this includes kids) $60.36 per person/per year. This figure looks minimal, but if you multiply this by the population of Wairarapa (41,115 2013 Census stats) would mean a total repayment for Wairarapa of $2,481,701 per year. We know from the 2006 Census stats that there is 15,270 rating units in Wairarapa, so let's divide $2,481,701 by 15,270 which means each rating unit will have to pay an additional $162.52 per year in rates.

Now for the interesting part. If the Wairarapa rates are (estimated) $2000 per year on average, that would mean an increase of 8.13 per cent in rates just to begin with.

Now I know my figures are simplistic, but this does not sound exciting to me and I wonder how some of ourratepayers will be able to afford this.

Mark Harris
Masterton District Councillor