Asked about local government reorganisation and possibly doing away with the regional council, half of those polled said they wanted to keep the present system, 27% wanted change, and 23 % didn’t know or hadn’t made up their mind. 

Clearly, ratepayers are not convinced of the net benefits to them.

The McKinlay report states that the process of “change within local government typically comes at greater than expected cost, and with greater than expected disruption”. Further, the report states there are little or no on-going savings to be achieved through restructuring, “even though typically proponents of restructuring argue that reduced cost will be one of the outcomes.” (p 70)

The report states (p 71) that restructuring “should go some way to reducing any concerns about current relationships”, but one would wonder if this issue was better dealt with through the ballot box. As Local Government minister, Rodney Hide said in the Advocate (April 20th) “voters and ratepayers could have a say on the reorganisation issue in the local government elections in October” by selecting candidates who would create collaborative relationships.

Mr Hide was quoted in the same article as saying: “the government would next year introduce a discussion document on unitary authorities to pave the way for the incoming administration after the 2011 general election.” Surely, Whangarei District Council should wait until the outcome of this, rather than wasting $200,000 jumping the gun.