A leaked email shows Upper Hutt is unlikely to sign up to a Wellington metro authority with Lower Hutt, Wellington City and Porirua.
The ramifications of the move could potentially leave the city’s fate in the government’s hands for local government reforms.
The chief executives of the nine Wellington and Wairarapa councils have two weeks to hammer out options for their councillors to consider and vote on, with the region’s amalgamation plan to be sent to the Government by August 9.
A leaked email sent by Wellington mayor Andrew Little to Wellington City councillors on Wednesday evening, after a meeting of the region’s Mayoral Forum, said Upper Hutt was “unlikely to agree” to be blended into a Wellington metro authority.
Upper Hutt would consider its inclusion in a proposal they did not agree with akin to “co-opting them against their will”, the email claimed.
Upper Hutt mayor Peri Zee, the email claimed, told her counterparts she would ask councillors in each council to propose an amendment to write Upper Hutt out of any amalgamation proposal, and told Little she already arranged for two Wellington City councillors to do so.”
“In the end it is for ministers to decide,” Little told his councillors.
“Ministers may make decisions regardless of whether a council has made or is part of a proposal.”
Zee, who said on Wednesday amalgamation costs were significant and the financial benefits were “unlikely to be realised on any reasonable term”, would not confirm it on Thursday.
She told Local Democracy Reporting the Upper Hutt City Council had not decided whether to support the proposal ahead of a meeting on August 5.
“Throughout this process, our focus has been on the likely costs and benefits for the Upper Hutt community, and on protecting effective local representation,” she said.
“On the matter of whether or not a council should be co-opted into the proposal against its will, I am asking elected members from around the region to respect any formal decision made by their peer councils.”
Little’s email also said Horowhenua District Council would not be part of a Wellington proposal and it was “likely” the three Wairarapa councils would form their own unitary authority.
On Thursday, in the Wellington City Council’s last public briefing on amalgamation before councillors vote on a final plan in early August, councillor Andrea Compton asked whether a council pulling out of the region’s proposal would risk the Government throwing Wellington to the “backstop”, where ministers take over deciding the region’s governing structure.
Little said the criteria of the Government’s local government reforms showed it wanted a structure that fit with its new planning legislation.
“It does pose a challenge if you put a proposal that is inconsistent with an obvious alignment with that legislation because one or more councils decide they don’t want to be part of it,” he said.
Councillors were told the region’s chief executives were finalising a paper asking councillors to consider a unitary authority of an elected mayor, councillors, Māori wards and the chairpersons of at least five subregional community councils.
The community councils would also have their own councillors and Māori wards, but the finer details, such as the number of elected members, would not be in August’s “outline” proposal and worked on in a later “detailed design phase”.
Financial analysis by advisory MartinJenkins on different amalgamation scenarios projected that creating a metro authority of Wellington, Porirua and the Hutt Valley could cost $269 million and in return, estimated efficiencies of $930m over 25 years, or a net $159.80 a year for each property.
The firm estimated a single Wairarapa authority would cost $42m to establish. It could save $170m over the coming 25 years, or a net $180.80 per property a year, but it need to fill a $8m budget hole and losing the subsidies from Wellington could obliterate any amalgamation-related savings.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air