Kaipara mayor Jonathan Larsen<\/a> said he looks forward to working with other Northland councils \u201cto get the best possible outcome for our ratepayers\u201d.<\/p>\nTipene said it was difficult to go into specifics at this early stage. All four councils want to work with the central government but need time to examine the details.<\/p>\n
Couper said he supports the Government\u2019s drive for efficiencies across both local and central government, saying \u201cefficiencies aren\u2019t just about cost-cutting but also about improving service delivery and outcomes for communities\u201d. <\/p>\n
He said the relationship between Whang\u0101rei District Council and Northland Regional Council has long been collaborative. <\/p>\n
He cited joint work on projects such as the Whang\u0101rei Future Development Strategy, Civil Defence and Emergency Management, flood resilience planning, economic development through Northland Inc, and environmental programmes like Tiakina Whang\u0101rei. <\/p>\n
These existing partnerships provided a foundation for any future shared service arrangements under the proposed reforms, Couper said. <\/p>\n
He noted the proposal for mayor-led CTBs was only one option proposed by the Government, which is also seeking feedback as to the role and powers the Crown might have on these boards.<\/p>\n
The proposed change is part of wider Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms, with legislation expected by 2027.<\/p>\n
The Government claims the current system is plagued by duplication, inefficiency and poor voter engagement \u2013 citing turnouts below 50% in local elections \u2013 and argues the shake-up will lead to better accountability, reduce rates and effect smarter use of them, delivering better value for ratepayers.<\/p>\n
![\"Northland]()
Northland Regional Council building on Water St, Whang\u0101rei. Photo \/ NZME <\/p>\n
CTB voting would be weighted by population, with mechanisms to ensure smaller communities have influence; Crown Commissioners could also be appointed to balance decision-making.<\/p>\n
Existing district and regional boundaries would mostly remain, although the RRPs could recommend more unitary authorities or shared services, while regional council M\u0101ori and general regional constituencies would be replaced by mayoral representation.<\/p>\n
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years\u2019 experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The public has until next February to give its feedback and it won\u2019t be until after then that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,50243,4500,7558,181,2245,10537,2550,26095,1958,2070,266,7237,14236,78,40484,440,17250,111,43,139,1067,24926,69,2847,5256,2170,5914,14170,1321,3168,11987,301,8229,61,25396,102542],"class_list":["post-154365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-anticipated","tag-changes","tag-councils","tag-details","tag-early","tag-else","tag-even","tag-everyone","tag-focus","tag-full","tag-government","tag-governments","tag-held","tag-in","tag-learned","tag-local","tag-mayors","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-northlands","tag-nz","tag-only","tag-overhaul","tag-plan","tag-regional","tag-scrap","tag-services","tag-shared","tag-sweeping","tag-talks","tag-they","tag-to","tag-urge","tag-yesterdayalongside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}