Regional Council notes

By Councillor Adrienne Staples

The local government elections are done and dusted and most councils have settled into the work at hand for the new triennium.  It would be great to predict smooth sailing for the next three years but sadly it feels like stormy seas ahead if what is on the Regional Council work programme is anything to go by.

Like it or not, New Zealand feels like it is in a state of low-key unrest and this certainly manifested itself in the local government elections.  In the Greater Wellington Region, we have five new mayors out of eight, with two retirements and three defeats indicating that many people were not happy with the status quo.

The trouble is that much of what makes them unhappy is not actually local government’s own doing but a reaction to central government’s direction of travel on local government matters.

Which ever way you look at it, our current government is hell bent on local government reform.  They are doing this by stripping councils of the functions they carry out rather than examining what our modern society needs from the local government system then designing the structure around those needs.

High on everyone’s radar is the ‘Three Waters Reform’ but lurking below the surface is another shark, biting chunks of responsibility off local and regional councils by removing their planning and consenting functions.

Its common knowledge that councils are the organisations responsible for the planning and regulatory functions in our regions, districts and towns under the Resource Management Act.  It is not a perfect system by any means but it does allow individuals, communities and organisations to have a very solid say in place shaping their towns, cities and districts through the Regional and District Plans.  

The new proposal, which does away with the Resource Management Act, also does away with councils’ role in developing the plans and policies that shape our towns and districts.  Instead, we will have an appointed Regional Planning Committee to which a council can nominate one member.

It is not yet clear how small communities like ours in Wairarapa will get to influence the Regional Planning Committee’s decision making or just how generic the rules and policies developed for the Greater Wellington Region will be.  It will certainly be concerning if they try to make ‘one size fit all’.

So, that is just two of the pieces of local government reform heading our way.  Top those off with rapid inflation, climate change challenges, emissions reductions, loss of biodiversity, fresh water health and the sea is starting to look very choppy indeed. 

We shouldn’t argue though that we don’t need to do things differently but rather what is proposed is not the answer.