May 3, 2012

Mayor challenges Porirua counterpart over amalgamation comments

Mayor Jenny Rowan says she’s disappointed Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett has criticised other councils in the region for not joining a Wellington Regional Council panel looking at amalgamation.

“Porirua is the only council that has opted to join the panel. They’ve made their decision. We respect that and ask Mayor Leggett to accordingly respect Kāpiti’s decision. This council gave the matter serious consideration and unanimously decided the interests of our community would be better served by following our own processes.”

Mr Leggett has accused other councils of ‘burying their heads in the sand’ by not joining the panel but Mayor Rowan says that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“For two years, via the Regional Mayoral Forum, Mayors in the region have been working together to find ways of achieving efficiencies and saving money. Shared library services, joint purchasing arrangements and the new Civil Defence and Emergency Management structure for the region are good examples.

“It may not be headline-grabbing stuff but this is real cooperation and collaboration at a regional level – amalgamation without the trumpets, if you like. It’s simply not true to suggest that councils are sitting on their hands.

Mayor Rowan says the Mayoral Forum is a strong, cohesive and effective mechanism that is already achieving some of the goals wider amalgamation seeks to achieve.

“It’s interesting to note that Auckland didn’t have a functional mayoral forum so when the Supercity evolved they pretty much had to start from scratch to achieve some of efficiencies we have already notched up on the board.”

Kāpiti is working on governance reform options to put to the community and will survey residents to see which they favour.

ENDS

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