Quiet, nobody use the merger word!
It is the conversation that no one in Upper Hutt wants.
Hutt City Deputy Mayor David Bassett caught everyone off guard at a recent candidates meeting by suggesting it was time to debate merging the Hutt Valley councils.
Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy subsequently responded bluntly, rejecting any talk of merging the two Hutt Valley councils.
Bassett argued that there was a view that with the demise of the super city proposal, the discussion of a Hutt Valley council was dead and buried.
Bassett believed such thoughts were premature and the government was still looking for local authorities to be more efficient.
That, he said, could only be achieved in the Hutt Valley by a merger. He chairs Wellington Water and pointed to that as an example of what could be achieved by greater co-operation between councils.
The two councils jointly run everything from cemeteries, to the Silverstream Landfill and animal control.
With such a high level of shared services, the next logical step for Bassett was a merger.
Rather than letting central government set the agenda, he believed the two councils should work together to take the initiat- ive. Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy was blunt in his response to such comments. ‘‘It is not on our agenda.’’ He chairs the mayoral forum and was focused on getting all the councils in the region to share services.
As the mayor of Upper Hutt he would be directed by what residents want and it was clear that locals do not want any form of amalgamation, he said.
Lower Hutt Mayor Ray Wallace held a similar view. Polling conducted by Hutt City showed their was support for one Hutt Valley council, but only as an alternative to a super city.
With that off the agenda, Wallace was not sure how much support there was for a Hutt Valley merger.
It was clear that Upper Hutt wanted to retain its independence.
He often received anti merger comments from Upper Hutt residents and he doubted that would change in the current climate.
For a merger to have any chance of success, it would need to be initiated by Upper Hutt.
Chamber of Commerce boss Mark Futter, who was a senior officer in the Upper Hutt council, agreed with Bassett. With a combined population of 140,000, it was hard to justify having two councils.
Upper Hutt has one thing that other cities in the region are short of, flat land for housing.
A combined council and a valley-wide District Plan would make it easier to develop the land for housing, he said.
Many Upper Hutt residents already play sport and shop in Lower Hutt and one council seemed a sensible option.