Reforming Local Government #1
Adam is a strong proponent of the idea that we need fewer local councils. In fact he thinks that the Wellington Regional Council and the other local councils should be collapsed into one council.
This to Adam makes rational and economic sense. We would then have one council representing nearly 500,000 people or approximately one-eighth of the country’s population. Thus the collective voice would have more impact. Parochial infighting would be reduced. Bureaucratic duplication reduced. Opportunties for cost mitigation would be available.
Based on some recent articles various of our local body politicians do not agree, but then turkeys do not wish for an early Christmas.
So it was with pleasure that Adam saw this letter in the Dominion Post of 12 January.
Letters to the Editor - Dominion Post - 12 January
This is something that Rodney Hide as Local Government Minister should take on board as a priority.
Comments are closed.
Andrew W
In one sense you are right, but I would suggest 9 councils serving 450,000 odd people, is too many.
There may be alternatives, but keeping 9 councils does not make a lot of sense to me.
Economies of scale may well occur in big capital intensive industries, but I don’t accept they’re real when it comes to local government.
Councils don’t operate in a competitive market place, effectively they’re a monopoly over their ratepayers, and the bigger they get the more divorced from the needs of their ratepayers they become.
They turn into bureaucratic empires that primarily serve the interests of those that work in them, and the bigger they are the more layers of bureaucrats you get.
I would have agreed in the past, but I do not agree today.
My view is that higher rates result from government making local bodies responsible for more and more, but not funding the cost;coupled with inefficiencies from lack of scale and local inter-council competition.
The same argument was used to abolish smaller local bodies in the past. It might sound logical but all that results is higher rates,poorer services and less civic pride.