Minister shuts down mayor's claim of softening stance on local body amalgamation

Local Government Minister Simon Watts says policy on amalgamation has not changed, after one mayor indicated a softening of the government's position.Watts, alongside RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop, announced in May that councils would have three months to come up with plans for reorganising council boundaries, with a focus on abolishing regional councils and creating larger unitary authorities."Our message to councils is simple: lead your own reform or we will do it for you. Either way, change is coming," Bishop said at the time.That 9 August deadline - pitched as giving councils a "head start" on amalgamation discussions - is fast approaching.Councils have been consulting and discussing their options but few have come up with firm plans.Tararua mayor Scott Gilmore spoke to Morning Report on Thursday about how those discussions were going, saying they had great relationships with all their neighbours but "definitely not to a point where there'd be any meaningful proposal being ready to be put forward"."It's not just amalgamation, and I think that's the problem with the government's head-start proposal is amalgamation is the only option within that process."We think that there's other options, like the government first signalled late last year - shared services, other collaboration, other efficiencies."Discussions had started with Horizons Regional Council, covering Manawatū-Whanganui, but Tararua covered a "massive, massive" area already and regional council areas were based on water catchments, Gilmore said.As a result, the council was not planning to submit a proposal."People are really conscious of their local voice, and I actually think not that we should lose it."Our council sees much more risk for us taking part in the head start ... we wouldn't have time to have a good proposal but we might get locked into something that would be really undesirable for our communities, and we're just not willing to do that. And our community told us they don't want us to."The way that local government works best is when the people that are close to the action are participating in the decision-making. And you know, when you look at having a huge geographical area, a mass amalgamation, it's going to be really difficult to put that in there."However, the rhetoric from the government on amalgamation "has changed and has softened", he said."I'm really grateful to the minister. I've spoken to him directly a couple of times."We've had clarified that the back-stop process will be a collaborative process and it'll be run in a similar way to what they consulted on late last year before all of this head-start bombshell dropped."That will give us an opportunity to help us lead our own reforms."Gilmore criticised the approach taken, saying the "language of 'do it or we'll do it to you' ... was really unhelpful".Local Government Minister Simon Watts.RNZ / Baz MacdonaldWatts rejected the suggestion of a softening."There's been no change in government policy," the minister said in a statement.He indicated that what would happen to councils afterwards - the "back-stop" option - would take council feedback into account but that ultimately the government would decide the way forward."Our position is and has always been that we will work with councils - head start was specifically designed to give councils control over their plans."Change is coming and the government will progress with the back stop for councils not in the head start. But we've also been clear from the beginning that we want to learn from the councils going through the process before making final decisions on what that back stop looks like."Councils have until 9 August to submit proposals.