Council merger feedback sought
More public feedback is being sought from West Coast communities as the Local Government Commission considers merging the region’s councils into one organisation.
In August 2016, the commission decided there was enough community support to further consider reorganising the three districts on the West Coast: Westland, Grey and Buller.
The commission started a telephone survey last week to gauge public support for keeping the councils separate or merging some or all of their services into one organisation.
Local Government Commissioner Janie Annear said although the commission carried out extensive public engagement on the West Coast last year, it wanted to get ‘‘up-to-date’’ information on public support for the various options before making a decision.
‘‘It has been more than a year since we last engaged with the community on these matters,’’ she said.
‘‘Officials have done considerable work on other factors in the meantime, but West Coasters will have had more time to consider possible change and we now wish to see how they might feel about different options.’’
Among the options on the survey are no change, which by law must be included, merging two or more of the councils, creating a unitary authority to combine the functions of the district and regional councils, or keeping the status quo but transferring some services between councils, such as resource management.
If the councils merged or a unitary authority was created, the commission would seek to ensure local communities still had a full voice in local affairs, Annear said.
Local boards could be created under a unitary authority option, with legislated powers to represent those communities; or community boards with delegated powers could be created for any proposed district council mergers.
A joint submission between the three West Coast district councils and the regional council, submitted in March, called for some form of shared services between the four authorities.
The councils’ submission suggested unifying regulatory services such as consent processing, compliance monitoring and building consent work, to save ‘‘both time and money’’ for investors, businesses and the community.
Annear said a consultant’s investigation into the financial and operational aspects of the various options and previous consultation with the councils and communities would be considered.
The commission is expected to confirm its preferred option by the end of the year.
If it prefers to change the makeup of the councils, it will then prepare a draft proposal and consult further with West Coast communities, before deciding whether or not to issue a final proposal.