Kāpiti Coast residents not interested in Wellington amalgamation

Tuesday, 21 July 2026

Kāpiti Coast residents would rather the area form its own authority or amalgamate with Horowhenua under the local government reforms, rather than being absorbed into a single Wellington authority.

Kāpiti Coast residents would prefer the area go out on its own than be absorbed into a single Wellington authority.

Endorsed by 43% of the 2770 responses to a Kāpiti Coast District Council survey on amalgamation, a single Kāpiti Coast authority was the most preferred option, followed by combining with Horowhenua, at 36.2%. Joining the Wellington regional authority was preferred by just 18.1%, while letting the Government decide fetched 2.7%.

Councillors are deciding on Thursday whether to seek a standalone Kāpiti Coast unitary authority, separate from a Wellington regional authority made up of Wellington City, Porirua, the Hutt Valley and possibly Wairarapa. The deadline for final amalgamation proposals to be submitted to Government is August 9.

“I don’t think anybody was really surprised by the result of our survey,” mayor Janet Holborow said on Tuesday. “What we hear from the community is that they think we're in pretty good shape.”

The survey results were at odds with the results of similar surveys in the rest of the region: 49.8% of Upper Hutt’s survey respondents were open to change only if outcomes clearly improved, while 9.3% supported combining councils regardless of the outcome.

Most Kāpiti respondents said local decision-making and water services were important, and were sceptical about amalgamation, especially if their rates were subsidising a larger area.

Mayor Janet Holborow didn’t think anyone was surprised by the survey results.

A Paekākāriki resident believed amalgamation would mean paying for other councils’ lacking of planning; a Paraparaumu-based respondent was “very concerned” about having to cover someone else’s debt.

A 2013 report by consultants Morrison Low on the financial implications for the Kāpiti Coast of forming a unitary authority estimated that operating revenue and expenditure would be largely balanced, with a small projected deficit.

Holborow said Kāpiti’s position in the 2026 reforms would be based on public feedback, the council’s current assets and infrastructure. “We’ve gathered quite a lot of information already as a council,” she said. “We've been working hard to get as much information as we can in front of us as we've gone through this process from the very start.”

Councillors across Wellington and Wairarapa were being briefed by advisory firm MartinJenkins on Tuesday on the financial details of different amalgamation combinations, including costs and relative benefits and weaknesses. Holborow didn’t believe it would have a material difference, but the council’s decision on Thursday would be subject to debate.

Last week, MartinJenkins proposed carving out a single regional authority and community councils based on geography, with Kāpiti grouped into a community council with Horowhenua.

Lower Hutt mayor Ken Laban’s plan to have a single 20-member authority would allocate two members to Kāpiti and a dedicated four-member local community council, that would need a super majority to pass budgets.

Laban said in an op-ed in The Post that his plan was to regionalise “what makes sense at scale” like housing and transport and “keep the rest close to home, decided by people who actually live there”, and he would rather have residents “hold the pen” instead of dictated to by the Government.

Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air