Council leaders in the Wellington region are looking at plans that could see their councils amalgamated.
At the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee meeting on Tuesday, mayors from Wairarapa, Hutt Valley, Kāpiti and Wellington will discuss the possibility of a regional deal.
A regional deal is a plan that allows an area or city to work with central government on long-term issues for the region.
Amalgamating councils is being pitched so that challenges around the structure of local government in the region can be addressed.
Under the early plans there would be one council for Wairarapa, one for Wellington, the Hutt Valley and Porirua and one for Kāpiti and potentially Horowhenua.
There would still be one regional council.
“Can we continue with nine local authorities across the region? Or is there some merit in starting to combine local authorities and get some economies of scale, get more joined up thinking around infrastructure connectivity?”
I wonder what a council might look like if you made one council that covered Wellington, Porirua, and the Hutt. Perhaps we’d get a completely different mix of councillors. Perhaps it’s just what Wellington need!
Given how economically linked the three are, and how a lot of the Hutt Valley works in Wellington, I can see the argument for it, but Wellington need to get their act together before they can come hang out with us.