Scaremongering

I’m starting to think all the local government reform talk is a bit of scaremongering.  I’ve not had much of a chance to hear all the speeches from central government and the media hype so I read the Better Government document to catch up.

While the cover has maps, implying central government have got a restructuring all sorted out, reading the document provides more clarity and confidence.  It doesn’t allow for central government to come in and amalgamate us all.

The new process will be:
1. Community or council prepares an initiative and submits it to the Local Government Commission;
2. The Commission assesses the initiative against statutory criteria and either:
a. rejects it; or
b. refers it back for further work; or
c. proceeds to develop the initiative into a draft proposal;
3. The Commission approves and publishes a draft proposal for consultation;
4. The Commission hears submissions on the draft proposal from affected communities and other interested parties;
5. The Commission determines whether the proposal has sufficient public support and if so, proceeds to a
final proposal;
6. If a petition of at least 10% of the affected electors of the proposed new council request a poll, this will beundertaken and determined by a simple majority over the area of the proposed council area;
7. The Commission prepares a final reorganisation scheme that is implemented by Order in Council.

It doesn’t seem as drastic to me as the media and councils are making out

And those four intended for September, they’ll just call all their pet projects ‘public services’