Progress on making a better, brighter capital

Collaboration has been the key to strengthening local government in the Wellington region, says Sir Wira Gardiner.

sleb after sleb appeared to have no difficulty endorsing Hillary and painting a Trump as a fake patriot who at best, according to Bill Clinton, wasn’t much of a plan or facts guy, and at worst was a threat to the founding father’s creed that all Americans were born equal.

After each highly articulate and eloquent speech rolled out, sometimes by ordinary citizens, it made you feel sad for the state of our own political oratory and our irritable vowel syndrome.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m trying to crack the class ceiling here, but with only a little more than a year out from our election, I suspect that part of the problem for voter engagement is that the sound bite and our political parties leaders’ deathly dull rhetoric has made the electorate deaf to the idea of appreciating the power of oratory.

As each Democratic speaker left the stage to thunderous applause leaving the crowd whipped up to a frenzy, it reminded me of Gwyneth Paltrow when she played a C&W singer in the film Country Song, when her character left the stage with the crowd begging for more. She handed the mic to a stunned wannabe star waiting in the wings and as she walked off to her dressing room said: ‘‘And that’s how it’s done sweetheart’’.

Ayear ago the Local Government Commission decided not to proceed with its earlier proposal for a single region-wide unitary council in Wellington.

It signalled that it would be adopting a new approach to working with the region’s councils to explore opportunities for strengthening local government in the region.

In February, we committed to provide the public with an update on progress around the middle of the year and before the local government elections, in October.

Over the past 12 months, the commission has been working collaboratively with the region’s nine councils and communities. We have been transparent and consultative about our work every step of the way.

We have focused on important council services such as transport and water, rather than the numbers of mayors and councils we have around the region.

We worked with the Wairarapa councils and public to develop options for their future local government arrangements and then tested them with the community.

This new consultative approach has taken time and commitment from all parties. I would like to place on record my appreciation of the way the region’s councillors and local government leaders have responded.

As evidenced by the way in which the region’s mayors, and other key players contributed to a series of articles on this page earlier this year, they have been open to engaging constructively in debate.

That positive engagement, building on the region’s existing culture of co-operation, has continued in the ensuing months, whether in meetings with councillors, the Mayoral Forum, discussions at chief executive level – or in some of our public engagement sessions.

The debate has focused on ideas for how to strengthen the Wellington region’s local government and improve the delivery of local services for the benefit of residents, ratepayers and their communities.

A consistent feature of previous and ongoing feedback to the commission is that people want good quality local decision making and cost-effective services and sensible provision of infrastructure.

These, after all, play a large part in making a region, and its communities, desirable, safe, affordable and comfortable places to live.

Our work has focused on a number of specific aspects of local government in the region identified from previous public feedback and in discussions with the Wellington Mayoral Forum.

Considerable progress has been achieved in particular in considering options for future local government arrangements in Wairarapa.

That community has been at the front and centre of this process. We have worked with the councils to develop options and have engaged with the community to test them.

The Wairarapa community’s feedback has shown clear support for a combined district council for the area, joining together the existing three councils – South Wairarapa, Carterton and Masterton District councils.

We intend now to undertake a detailed assessment of this option, with a view to making a decision in early 2017 on whether to formally propose changes to local government in Wairarapa as part of a draft reorganisation proposal.

This would involve further public consultation.

Beyond Wairarapa, our work with councils has focused on a group of key local authority functions: land transport, spatial planning, water services and economic development.

We have commissioned technical assessments of each of these. The resulting reports include either recommendations for councils on how to strengthen the delivery of these services, or areas for more specific investigation.

To date, this work has been very much focused on working with councils.

Following the elections, we will be looking to take the discussion and debate wider – to stakeholders and the public across the wider region.

For transport, in particular, we will are aiming to complete work with councils in October 2016, and then intend to set out the process and timeframe for identifying a preferred option, including public consultation.

Our intention in providing this update now is to put this information into the public domain so Wellington people are properly informed about the work the commission and their councils have been undertaking in advance of the local government elections in October.

Sir Wira Gardiner is chairman of the Local Government Commission. The commission’s reports, and can be found on the LGC website (lgc.govt.nz) along with technical reports on transport, water, economic development and spatial planning.