Gilmore said the Government\u2019s amalgamation plan could mean Tararua would \u201ccease to exist\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said they would be looking at their options, including merging with other councils, changing their boundaries or aligning parts of their district with different neighbouring areas.<\/p>\n
Amalgamation is not new to the region, part of which used to be known as Southern Hawke\u2019s Bay. In 1987, the Dannevirke District Council was formed by the amalgamation of Dannevirke Borough Council and Dannevirke County Council.<\/p>\n
Two years later, in 1989, the Dannevirke District Council amalgamated with Eket\u0101huna County Council, Pahiatua Borough and County Councils, and the Woodville District Council to form the Tararua District Council.<\/p>\n
Its name was taken from the two ranges \u2013 Tara from the Tararua Ranges and Rua from the Ruahine Ranges.<\/p>\n
Gilmore said he had been vocal about his views regarding amalgamation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this conversation can\u2019t be about me, our councillors, or council alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tararua District Council Mayor Scott Gilmore is holding meetings throughout the district to discuss amalgamation options. Around 65 people attended this meeting in Pahiatua on Monday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt belongs to the people who live here, raise families here, run businesses here, farm here, and call the Tararua District home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tararua is not the only small council facing uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Central Hawke\u2019s Bay Mayor Will Foley, also elected in the 2025 local body elections, says they are in the same boat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel for Scott. We are in the same boat. Government hasn\u2019t given us clear direction on what exactly it wants from councils,\u201d Foley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would be more than happy to have a discussion with Scott.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both mayors were concerned for their rural communities, saying places like \u0100kitio and Herbertville in the Tararua District, and \u014ct\u0101ne and Tikokino in CHB, could lose their voices if the mergers were not handled properly. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not what National campaigned on. There\u2019s been so much reform. We are all still working on the water reforms, it\u2019s just too much,\u201d Foley said.<\/p>\n
Gilmore said the options for Tararua included:<\/p>\n
merging with Hawke\u2019s Bay councilsbecoming part of a larger council covering the Horizons regioncreating a larger council with Wairarapa councils, and potentially Wellington councilssplitting up the region to align with neighbouring areas.<\/p>\n
He said there were two more options \u2013 not to participate in reform discussions, which could lead to the Government deciding its structure, or if all the options were unacceptable to the community, fighting the proposals.<\/p>\n
\u201cBehind every one of these options sits a much bigger conversation about who we are as a district and where we want to go next,\u201d Gilmore said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve also been consistent that I do not support large-scale amalgamation being treated as the default answer to local government reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor districts like the Tararua, there is a real risk that rural voices and priorities become diluted within larger urban-dominated structures or if decision-making is moved far from the people impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gilmore will be meeting with communities in the district to discuss options.<\/p>\n
Both Foley and Gilmore said the timeframe did not give communities enough time to properly consider changes that could permanently reshape local representation and services.<\/p>\n
Foley said the Government would be \u201cshutting down\u201d and going into campaign mode in three months. <\/p>\n
\u201cWould there have been any risk in giving us nine months to come back to them?\u201d<\/p>\n
Wairoa was another district council with a choice to make, going either north to Gisborne or south to Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n
A Hastings District Council spokesperson said after the reforms were announced earlier this month, that while there was enough Government detail to prepare an early scope, the discussions between councils on how it would work would need to be done \u201cat speed to gather the relevant local information\u201d.<\/p>\n
They said a Hawke\u2019s Bay-wide building consents department and one organisation running dog control were part of the amalgamation options being considered in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe four mayors (Wairoa\u2019s Craig Little, Foley, Hastings\u2019 Wendy Schollum and Napier\u2019s Richard McGrath), along with HB Regional Council chair Sophie Siers and councillors will be working to set a direction, while council staff will prepare documentation to provide to the Government.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hawke\u2019s Bay Regional Council would be disestablished in 2028.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gilmore said the Government\u2019s amalgamation plan could mean Tararua would \u201ccease to exist\u201d. He said they would be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,101475,5205,7557,15559,70227,7237,7231,9858,10934,28126,3234,111,43,139,69,53190,17146,202,57816,29421,48758,14905,1533],"class_list":["post-434518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-amalgamation","tag-council","tag-district","tag-elected","tag-exist","tag-governments","tag-govts","tag-if","tag-mayor","tag-merger","tag-months","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-questioning","tag-questions","tag-seven","tag-survive","tag-tararua","tag-ultimatum","tag-whether","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434518","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=434518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}