Grey Power has come out in support of local authorities opposed to the proposed Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill.

Delegates to the Local Government New Zealand Conference in Dunedin last week sounded a warning about what they believe is a covert push for the amalgamation of councils into bigger units.

In particular the bill proposes to set up an independent authority to investigations local government re-structuring without community consultation.

Grey Power national president Tom O’Connor said the dilution of democracy throughout the local government spectrum was a very serious matter for the whole of the country but particularly for senior people on fixed incomes.

“There seems to be a move to centralize all executive authority in Wellington which most people seem not to be aware of. The new national fire and emergency service will take away local governance. In Canterbury the people have lost the right to elect their own regional council since 2010 and in Auckland they got a super city which no one really wanted. In both those cases rates have gone up, not down and the provision of essential services has not improved.”

O’Connor said his organisation had long been seeking ways to make local body rates more affordable for senior people but forced amalgamations and undemocratic intrusions in local matters by Central Government were probably not the best options.

“Bigger is not necessarily better as the costs generally go up and the loss of local democracy will only result in further apathy at local body elections.”

He said one of the issues which had troubled Grey Power for some time was the power of general competence which gave local authorities the ability to undertake almost anything legal. “We want them to stick to the provision of basic facilities and leave the high risk ventures to private enterprise.”

There were ways of improving the efficiency of local bodies and one of them might be to put a curb on the tasks they are given by central government which come without the money to carry them out, he said

“Amalgamations are for ratepayers to decide and should not be imposed by Central Government.”

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