Has the local body merger horse bolted?

South Wairarapa has pulled out of the region’s tri-council talks which, according to deputy mayor Melissa Sadler-Futter, was to look at key questions around local body governance and structure – but moved quickly to discussing merger/amalgamation.

SWDC also had councillor Martin Bosley at the table with Carterton and Masterton representatives.  

“It (the talks) could include shared services, integrated services, the benefits or risks of merger …. looking at all the options and weighing them up to report back to council,” Sadler-Futter told The Star.

“It was clear from some at the table there was an urgency felt by some for a merger and a preference to go down the merger pathway,” with an outcome “to seek a plan to commit to a merger.”

“We felt the word ‘commit’ was the sticking point as at this point we … didn’t have enough information available to us to make a commitment (on merging),” she said. 

The two SWDC councillors wanted to see  – once the work was completed – what were the options, the benefits, risks and the alternatives available “to support the idea or not to merge.”

“We were the only one of the three councils that took that path. The other two (Carterton and Masterton) felt comfortable to start a planning merger conversation,” Sadler-Futter said. “That was a bit of a surprise to us, because it was quite clear to us we were only at the beginning of the conversation. ”

Were they further along the track than SWDC wanted to be?

“I think that would be fair. We were uncomfortable with the existing plan but they were further along the path than we were. We were not comfortable with the information we required to make a commitment one way or the other,” she added.

SWDC was out of the conversation. 

“Committing to a plan to merge (the three councils) felt like us (to being) on a path that we were definitely pro-merger.” 

“To us committing to merge really felt like committing to something without knowing the information and without knowing what are the benefits and what are the risks,” she said. 

Further, “we could not really commit without knowing what is the appetite from our community for this. We felt, many of us, it was something we didn’t really understand and could not really commit to without a community poll.”

Such a poll would come “once we had the information and I think that would be true for Carterton and Masterton as well.”

So where does the impasse leave South Wairarapa?

“That’s a great question and it’s one the council has to discuss further before we go further as we need more information.” That discussion is likely this month.

“And how do we get that information now that the working group is not functioning in the way it was set up to do?” she asked.

The council meeting will also decide next actions on the whole issue.

“I don’t think we’ve missed the bus. We’re still open to conversation. We’re still working through what that looks like for our community. I think that would have been a disservice to our community because certainly … we didn’t want to commit to something without being fully informed and saying why it was we made that decision.”     

Depending on the outcome … “it may well be we go back to Carterton and Masterton and say as you guys are still talking about it, maybe we should (rejoin and) talk about it _ or maybe the council will adopt a wait and watch stance at this point.”

Whether a merger would “translate to rates savings, I couldn’t say, but there are many benefits to be had from the three councils looking at the way they work together. Whether that turns out to be from shared services or merged services or a merger remains to be seen,” she said.