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Several former Hawke’s Bay leaders say a Government plan to abolish regional council elected members could be used to bring amalgamation back to the table in the region.

Under the plan proposed on Tuesday – just six weeks after local government elections – Hawke’s Bay Regional Council would be replaced by panels made up of the four local mayors.

At the moment, that would be Hastings’ Wendy Schollum, Napier’s Richard McGrath, Wairoa’s Craig Little and Central Hawke’s Bay’s Will Foley.

The mayors would form a combined Territory Board (CTB), meeting regularly to conduct regional council business. The board would also have to come up with a “Regional Reorganisation Plan” for their councils’ long-term structure.

The changes are open for consultation until February 20, with legislation expected to be introduced mid-next year and potentially passed in 2027.

Former Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) chair Rex Graham said he had always been a strong supporter of amalgamating Hawke’s Bay’s councils.

“If this is a step toward that outcome, it’s a victory for common sense,” Graham said.

But Little, who last year demanded an apology from the regional council for the way it handled the June floods, said the news was a shock.

“Things need to change, but I have to say that our relationship with HBRC’s new team has improved,” the Wairoa mayor said.

“Chair Sophie Siers has been working hard with us. This move for me is not a criticism of elected members.”

He said the extra work would be a challenge.

“All councillors and mayors in the region are already busy, but I think one entity would be less frustrating for ratepayers. However, it has to be fit for purpose.”

He said the process had to be fair, with decision-making divided based on land area rather than population.

Foley said he wanted both Central Hawke’s Bay and the region to prosper.

“I am always up for reducing costs and creating efficiencies, so the intent of this proposal is correct,” Foley said.

“Councils have been calling for change for a long time. So, let’s use this opportunity to create more sustainable local governance, because we need to ensure local voices remain relevant and effective.”

He said there were times when it made sense to be regional and times when it made sense to act as a district.

“There’s a lot of detail still to come. As a regional group of leaders, we meet regularly. This was announced yesterday, and we’re meeting this afternoon to start discussing this and what it means to us,” Foley said.

Schollum said a lot more detail was yet to come from the Government, which all councils would need to carefully consider in terms of what it meant for Hawke’s Bay residents.

“One of the Government’s drivers for this is cost savings for ratepayers, and we will be looking hard at that as the finer detail is provided,” Schollum said.

“I encourage residents to take part in the Government’s public consultation process on this.

“It runs over Christmas and the January holiday period, which is not ideal. However, this is potentially a generational change that will affect how local government is run for residents, so please take part.”

Tukituki MP Catherine Wedd said she welcomed the discussion and consultation, as local government structure had long been a topical conversation.

“Our proposed planning system reforms will strip out bureaucracy and create more efficiency. There will be fewer plans, fewer consent categories, less complexity and less cost,” Wedd said.

Former Labour Party Cabinet minister and HBRC chair Rick Barker said he also supported a review of local government.

“In Hawke’s Bay we have five relatively small councils, more than 50 councillors, four mayors, one chair, five chief executives, five administrative assistants for a population of around 175,000,” Barker said.

“Whereas Auckland has a population of more than a million people and one council that is doing just fine.”

He said in his view the way local, regional and central government were run all needed to be reviewed and taxpayers and ratepayers, who funded them, should have their say.

“My experience has been that local does better than central, yet central gets the best proportion of funding from taxpayers, leaving the regions to raise what they can from ratepayers.”

Former regional councillor Martin Williams, in an opinion piece for Hawke’s Bay Today, said the idea that governance should be transferred to a collection of district and city mayors seemed “absurd”.

“Would we see each mayor taking a regional view of the issues, or simply put their patch first?

“As I see it, the solution is not to abolish regional councils or their functions, nor district councils for that matter, but to integrate them within one organisation through amalgamation into unitary authorities.”

Former Napier Mayor Annette Brosnan said it was time for Hawke’s Bay to lead the change, rather than the Government, by pushing for amalgamation.

“The real question isn’t ‘will amalgamation happen?’

“The real question is ‘if reform is coming, will we design a structure that protects our rivers, our land, and our people — or let someone else design it for us?’"

In announcing the reform, Resource Management Act Reform Minister Chris Bishop said reforms would deliver the most significant changes to local government since 1989.

“The Government does not think local government is serving New Zealanders well and the time has come for reform,” he said.

Bishop said he could not guarantee regional councillors would be able to serve out their entire three-year term.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.