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Basil must answer supercity questions
Auckland’s dispute over wharf extensions reveals that supercities cannot break through the development barrier. Basil Morrison, Chair of the Local Government Commission has claimed that supercities...
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Young hearts will pay the price
When Fran Wilde bleated an opportunistically belated ‘think of the children’ – we did. We thought about the fact that the next generation will be the ones to suffer at the hands of a Wellington...
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Article 7
In a supercity, democracy is measured in minutes. Whether they had presented 80 words or 80 pages, submitters on the Wellington Reorganisation proposal were given 8 minutes to verbalise their views to...
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Auckland supercity rates to rise
The NZHerald reports today that rates are rising in the Auckland supercity by 9.5%. This is the collection of cities, you will recall, that became a supercity four years ago. The promise was that a...
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GWRC and Auckland raise rates
The Auckland supercity has raised rates almost 10%, costing the average household there about $3000 more a year. This, despite the argument that a supercity would cost less to run. The Greater...
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Sydney furious at amalgamation plans
Sydney’s Councils are furious at State Government plans to force amalgamations between the 24 Councils making up Greater Sydney. The idea is to merge Councils so their populations form at least 100,000...
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Fran’s rate fiasco
Over the next ten year’s Fran Wilde’s GWRC will raise rates by 77% and levies by 92%. That means Fran is planning on a GWRC in 2026 that costs an extra $100m each year. With such inefficiency and egos...
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Yule couldn’t merge two piss-ups in a brewery
Lawrence Yule, one of the few remaining proponents of regional Council amalgamation has failed to merge service clubs in his home town of Hastings. The Hastings National Service Club yesterday voted...
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Hooray for Hutt / Boo for GWRC
The Hutt City Council did a great job amidst those heavy rains last week. Kapiti Coast District council, and its Mayor, were also notable in their action and communication with residents. The GWRC’s...
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We hiss at small rule reduction
The Government has been making a rather dismal effort to get people to complain about petty rules at the the local government level. There’s probably plenty of them, and as the campaign appears to...
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It’s over, and it’s us wot won it!
The Local Government Commission has given in and admitted defeat. It has dropped its crazy idea to make a supercity by amalgamating Wellington’s councils. Almost 90% of submissions on its draft plan...
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Hutt Valley relieved by amalgamation backdown
Media Release 10 June 2015 Hutt City residents are breathing a sigh of relief with news their city won’t be amalgamated but are furious at the time and money wasted, says the group formed to fight the...
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We trash the people who think they’re smarter than the public
Two years ago, a small group of smug people said amalgamation was a ‘foregone conclusion’. This week we proved the power of the public. We proved that these self-appointed know-it-alls can’t just make...
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Business elite hold hands after defeat
Here’s an insight into those people who were trying to take over the Hutt and our rates, to use for their think big schemes. After Fran Wilde’s resignation, or ousting, from Chair of the GWRC, the...
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Foss dissected
The amount of claptrap spoken in favour of amalgamation has not ceased with the end of the Wellington supercity proposal. At the heart of the problem are the nation’s decision-makers and influencers....
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Here’s how well a supercity works
The Auckland supercity, shining showcase of think big people such as Craig Foss, Fran Wilde, Lawrence Yule, and, it has to be said, John Key, is in a mess. Councillors are so jumpy about the enormous...
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Yule not be seeing me in all those familiar places
The question needs to be asked. Should Lawrence Yule remain President of Local Government NZ? He spoke in favour of amalgamations such as that which threatened our beloved Hutt against our wishes....
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The black list – GWRC councillors NOT to vote for
Councillors on the GWRC have scrambled to do in Fran following the debacle that was its failed effort to force amalgamation on the residents of the region. Voters would be justified in tossing each...
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GWRC doesn’t really want to know what you think of them
Like all organisations disconnected from their customers, GWRC has to survey the region’s residents on their opinions. GWRC recently surveyed the region by telephone, checking if we knew what they did....
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LGC: Out with the old, in with the old
The Government has confirmed that it has replaced Basil Boom Boom Morrison at the Commission with another long-time friend of the establishment, Wira Gardiner. Local Government Minister Paula Bennett...
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