Wellington amalgamation plan from MartinJenkins based on geography, not population
Thursday, 16 July 2026
With just 24 days for councils to present amalgamation proposals to the Beehive, the latest draft arrangement for the Wellington region carves out a single regional authority and community councils based on geography, not population .
Advisory firm MartinJenkins proposed the model to a Wellington City Council briefing on Thursday, believing it “best meets the Government's criteria, informed by the discussions with councils to date”. It was not the finalised amalgamation proposal, which the region’s mayors will submit to the Government by August 9.
Under a regional mayor with “executive powers”, the new authority would consist of ward councillors and the chairpeople of subsidiary community councils – currently set at five, for Central Wellington, North Wellington, Hutt Valley, Wairarapa and Kāpiti-Horowhenua – drawing their borders according to catchments instead of population.
MartinJenkins did not specify how many should sit on the regional authority and community councils, but did say the final number of community councils depend on how many councils remain in the amalgamation.
That varied from Lower Hutt mayor Ken Laban’s amalgamation plan, which proposed to absorb nine existing councils into a 19-member regional authority led by a regional mayor under one rating system, one plan and one chief executive, with six subsidiary community councils formed on existing boundaries.
Wellington City residents would elect seven out of 19 authority members. Lower Hutt would have four members, while Porirua, the Kāpiti Coast, Upper Hutt and Wairarapa would have two respectively. The authority’s members would make up half of their local community councils, with one them becoming the chairperson.
MartinJenkins partner Sarah Baddeley said mapping community council boundaries by catchments took recent planning law changes into account. Its model would also give community chairpeople greater authority, having picked up “lessons” from Auckland’s amalgamation, especially on the “degree of disconnect” between its governing body and local boards, she said.
“The model does anticipate a greater degree of delegation or devolution for those kinds of functions than is the case in Auckland.”
Councillor Sam O’Brien said basing community council areas based on catchment was “not potentially the most democratic system”.
Councillor Diane Calvert said she couldn’t see how the MartinJenkins model reflected Wellington City’s standing in the region.
“Wellington City Council represents about half the population in the region,” she said. “I just don't see us represented in any sort of way in terms of the scale of what we bring to the region, and also what the other parts of the region get from the benefit of having an economic hub here.”
Next Tuesday, MartinJenkins will brief the region’s mayors and councillors on the financial details of different amalgamation combinations, including costs and relative benefits and weaknesses.
A closed-door meeting of the region’s eight mayors will follow on Wednesday, before a public Wellington City Council briefing the day after.
Wellington’s councillors were told at last week’s briefing that the currently favoured choice of residents in a survey, to amalgamate with the Hutt Valley and Porirua councils, would cost 20% to 25% of a single year of the councils’ operating expenditure.
Roughly, that would be $148 million to $185.5m for Wellington City, according to some calculations by councillor Geordie Rogers. It would be $111m-$148m if the amalgamation branched out to the Kāpiti Coast and Wairarapa.
Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air