Tasman mayor pours cold water on amalgamation debate

Tuesday, 9 July 2024

Tasman mayor Tim King is concerned that a debate over amalgamation would consume both organisations.

Arguments that Nelson and Tasman councils should amalgamate have left Tasman mayor Tim King unmoved.

Speaking with Stuff, King said amalgamation was touted as “a bit of a silver bullet answer” to a whole lot of issues that it probably wouldn’t resolve.

Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce chief executive Ali Boswijk made a case to reignite a conversation about the topic in a talk at the chamber’s Aspire conference on Friday.

Boswijk argued that the Nelson Tasman region could not afford the ongoing costs of having two separate councils when rates were under increasing pressure

But King said there had to be a compelling case that amalgamation would make a significant, positive difference to ratepayers of both districts, and he “struggled” to see that.

“If you look at the history of amalgamations, the savings tend to be minimal … my perception is the bigger organisations get, they don’t necessarily get more efficient.”

The Nelson City and Tasman District councils probably already did more work together than any other two councils that were side by side, King argued, and there was the potential to do more, such as the three waters Local Water Done Well reform process.

If the councils were to amalgamate, because representation was based on population, it would be dominated by Richmond and Nelson, he said.

Nelson mayor Nick Smith told the Nelson Mail on Friday that from his experience in Parliament, there was no question that the region had missed out on central government investment because it did not have a united voice.

But King said he wasn’t sure that was the right reason to go through the process, and if central government couldn’t see past the fact that there were two councils, whatever the application was, then that was an issue with central government.

He said he’d also had feedback from recent governments that the region had put together comprehensive, jointly supported cases for all of their funding applications.

Nelson mayor Nick Smith said Boswijk’s call to put amalgamation back on the table was a bold and appropriate move.

Just having a single council, he said, didn’t magically make you more eligible for central government funding.

King’s biggest concern was that another debate about amalgamation would end up consuming the organisations.

“If you look at what happened last time, it is such a massive process to go through.

“It just distracts, in my view, from actually getting on and delivering the outcomes that we need to, because there's a lot of very important challenges for us to continue to work on.”

A poll taken at the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce’s Aspire conference showed that of those who attended, 97% were in favour of amalgamation.

That figure was made up of 63% of Nelsonians, and 34% of those from Tasman. The 3% who voted ‘no’ came from Tasman.

The two councils already work together on a multitude of projects, such as the jointly owned Infrastructure Holdings, which owns Port Nelson and Nelson Airport, and Saxton Field, and they co-fund services including the Nelson Provincial Museum.

They also collaborate on transport, public transport, landfills and sewerage, and fund the Nelson Regional Development Agency.

King said if the outcome of working more closely together led some to suggest the combining of political functions, that could be a “natural evolution”.

“To make that the first thing you do, I don’t necessarily think it’s the right way around,” he said.

“But clearly, it seems to be a debate we are going to have.”