Public Address | Cafe | Legal Beagle: Wellington Super City? Not even if it’s the best idea ever.

Sacha

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 21:37:45 +1300

small mercies
#hurricanes

Rich of Observationz

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 20:23:54 +1300

Indeed it is. So logically it is also the best.

Sacha

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 17:45:28 +1300

We have the best professional soccer club in NZ

isn't that the only one?

Rich of Observationz

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 17:33:21 +1300

will it fix your crappy rugby team

Most Wellingtonians (as in the actual city) would not care.

We have the best professional soccer club in NZ, however.

Howard Edwards

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 15:50:45 +1300

I must admit that "Absolutely Positively Wellington & Porirua & Lower Hutt & Upper Hutt & bits of South Wairarapa & (etc)" doesn't have quite the same ring about it.

But the really important question is: will it fix your crappy rugby team?

Also interesting to read about the ChCh/Banks Peninsula merger – was the…

Daniel Wilton

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 12:01:49 +1300

This is a terrible idea.

What would it do Wellington's "no Mall" rule

The proposal would marginalise wellington and potentially see it return to the city it was in the 80's

Boring

Sacha

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 20:48:49 +1300

The example I offered was not cos of population size so much as cooperative rather than competitve disposition with the other Councils. The Council which stopped cooperating by decree a year before the merge made out like bandits.

Sacha

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 20:44:48 +1300

is not a city

is a region

linger

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 20:12:31 +1300

Whether it turns out to be good is entirely dependent on the quality of the representativesWhich, in part, depends on exactly who they think they're representing. Lower-population districts, less likely to supply representatives, are more likely to get shafted in an amalgamated council.

Sacha

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 18:13:58 +1300

Waitakere did OK in the merger too. Manukau got shafted at the staff level despite the Mayor.

Sacha

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 18:13:12 +1300

too far off consensus and his pants would be down

too true

william blake

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:25:59 +1300

Sacha, I was meaning that Banks was the hardest member of the Mayoral forum to negotiate with, but I’m sure it’s not easy dealing with Harvey either, too far off consensus and his pants would be down.

The parochial protection of your own fiefdom and stubborn insularity is the flip…

Bart Janssen

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:36:47 +1300

There is a conflict here.

Yes local issues should be decided by local representatives. Makes perfect sense.

But that assumes the representatives on the local councils are competent. And also assumes those same representatives are not corrupt.

Sadly given the number of councils and hence the large number of said…

Rob Stowell

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 14:45:01 +1300

BPC wasn't doing well – but many of its problems related to endless and ever-increasing bureaucratic demands from central govt. Eg the BP district plan of 1998 was one of the toughest on development in NZ, on the back of various consultants' reading of the RMA. That took 10 years…

Steve Curtis

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 14:29:08 +1300

As for the changes to the way the referendums were taken so that instead of a majority in each area, it only requires an majority overall.

Could that be related to this in 2012:
The bid to amalgamate the Nelson and Tasman councils has failed, based on a progress result…

Keir Leslie

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 11:09:43 +1300

There's a governance review for CCC this year (well, this year coming.) Hopefully some of these issues can be dealt with then.

Hebe

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 11:07:56 +1300

You're right. Whatever it's tiny rep for such a diverse and spread-out area.

The "board-of directors" CCC structure is flawed. My local councillors (in the city) are near invisible: I'm sure they do important works, but they are not easily accessible. Clinics at the library on Saturday mornings each week?…

Keir Leslie

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 10:54:52 +1300

Banks Peninsula has two community boards, no? Lyttelton/Mt Herbert and Akaroa-Wairewa.

Oh well: Christchurch should have twice as many councillors as it currently does, and probably half as many community board members, given the unwillingness to give them any real power.

Sacha

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 10:29:27 +1300

a tiny Community Board and one city councillor is not proper representation for the BPC

compared with other suburbs/wards, that’s over-representation

Sacha

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 10:28:25 +1300

his inability to work with the mayoral forum ( read, John Banks )

most would reverse your clause – was not just Harvey who had trouble with Banks.

Hebe

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 10:19:25 +1300

Interesting piece thank you. The Christchurch-Banks Peninsula merger was much different to the Wellington plan. The Peninsula is a thinly populated, spread out area with difficult terrain and small settlements, and a low rate take compared with the needs of its settled areas. BPC was on the verge of selling…

william blake

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:11:05 +1300

Bob Harvey spun the spin that became Eco City and West Aucklanders loved him for it but his inability to work with the mayoral forum ( read, John Banks ) moved him to suggest a greater Auckland Council with himself as The Lord Mayor. We love Bob and he would…

Katharine Moody

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:07:32 +1300

I’m not sure what the recommendation here is. Is it, vote ‘no’ in the referendum (regardless of what might be the merits of the proposal), or don’t exercise a vote at all (that is, abstain)?

If one agrees in principle that the legislation itself is bad – then I’d assume…

Sacha

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 22:48:58 +1300

I hear they're hiring columnists..

Rosemary McDonald

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 21:37:07 +1300

What were they saying about zombie towns?

This is how the decline begins.

Destroy autonomy and identity, undermine local community leaders....lambasting them for their inability to change....because of course...all change is good.

So....the crew that maintained the roads for the local council, who did not get a look in when…

Ian Tinkler

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 21:31:29 +1300

We cannot blame Tony Maryatt on Parker. He was appointed under Moore

Keir Leslie

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 21:06:40 +1300

Looks like garden variety racism to me, tbh.

Also: NZ needs strong regional governance structures and it needs small responsive local structures. It's struggled to find a balance to date and the poverty of the official debate on the issue makes me doubt it will ever get there.

Chris Waugh

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 20:53:48 +1300

Why is Tawa part of Wellington, it’s a suburb of Porirua?

I believe that goes back to the '89 local government reforms.

Sacha

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 20:26:12 +1300

Local contracing companies now having to sit idle

Region-wide procurement 'efficiencies' and opportunities for privatisation were what first attracted the interest of Hide and his fellow travellers in the Nats (and their drooling associates in the Taxpayers Onion).

Regional economic development is not a notion they care for. The market…

Sacha

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 20:22:12 +1300

Sustainable urban planning encompasses a city's surrounding catchments for water and food prpduction (much to the dismay of Rodney, Papakura and Franklin in the Auckland amalgmation). Transport and other significant infrastructure spans localities.

Places like Paekakariki, Wainuiomata and Featherson need to push for genuine local board influence in the new…

Rich of Observationz

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 20:15:54 +1300

Exactly.

I'm sure the most financially efficient arrangement would be to abolish all local councils and have a Ministry of Local Services run it all.

But we have local councils because the attitudes of people in Wellington City are different to those in Eketahuna.

(I'd actually favour a smaller council…

Keir Leslie

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 19:54:52 +1300

God that might have been the worse decision ever made in the CCC area – imagine if no amalgamation, no Bob Parker, no underfunded rural area to maintain, no Tony Maryatt! If only if only.

Ian Tinkler

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 19:40:18 +1300

As said above, Christchurch City residents did not vote for amalgamation. Bob Parker found a loop hole (after the initial proposal was rejected) that meant rural BP became part of urban CCC.
That union still makes no sense. Masterton being part of Wellington make no sense either

Kumara Republic

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 16:49:40 +1300

I can see a potential Thatcher vs Livingstone-type stoush in the works...

Rosemary McDonald

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 15:45:43 +1300

"That is not the law now. In 2012, the National Government amended this law in a couple of important ways:"

As the National Government is wont to do....and quietly, I'll bet.

On our travels, we get to chat with a lot of locals.

Down in Otaki a few months ago....locals…

Ian Dalziel

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 15:38:42 +1300

Crater Christchurch....
This Proposal for the abolition of Banks Peninsula District and its inclusion in Christchurch City: Commission's findings and decisions might be of historic interest – on a smaller scale.
and this too
this 'Urban Development Strategy' proposal shows – to me anyway – that plans for for developing…

Hilary Stace

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 13:34:58 +1300

Thanks for explaining all this, Graeme. Have been waiting for the Wellington super city plan to be revealed – I think it has been ready for months but was held back until after the election. I remember the law change which removed the right of each region to vote for…

Public Address

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 13:34:58 +1300

Discussion from blog post.