Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown says, “Wellington City Council today decided to cease work on any future local government reorganisation following the release of a Cabinet paper, “Better Local Services”. The paper proposed to remove the requirement for a public poll on Council led amalgamations.
Tonight’s Council agenda item about whether work should be undertaken to evaluate a Porirua City Council approach to merge with Wellington City. However, Council voted instead, by a decisive14 to1, to wait for the final legislation before considering the matter.
“The proposed legislation is a mixed bag,” she says. “Mandatory polls for Local Government Commission proposals are a great idea. Encouraging Councils to amalgamate while circumventing a poll is wrong and is not in the public interest.”
“We have consistently said there should be a binding public poll to decide any change to local government boundaries and Council will be making this position clear to Government as part of legislative process,” says Mayor Celia Wade-Brown.