‘Megatron’ merger rising as council considers amalgamation plans

Thursday, 16 July 2026

Three of the six options for Hamilton's amalgamation with other council areas appear to be off the table, as shown in a Hamilton City Council document presented at a meeting on Wednesday.

Hamilton City Council seems to have ruled out half its amalgamation options, leaving three finalists still in the game ahead of an August deadline.

Of these, the “megatron” option looks to be a strong contender, with several councillors expressing early support for the plan at a workshop on Wednesday.

Dubbed the Metro-Spatial option by council staff, councillor Andrew Bydder referred to it by a zippier moniker while describing it as the best merger for Hamilton.

Hamilton City Councillor Andrew Bydder dubbed his preferred option the “megatron” at a council workshop on Wednesday.

'I doubt it's got the scale that the Government was looking for, but, if there's other Waikato amalgamation, they might let us get away with it, so let's push for that,' he said.

However, the meeting also included a warning against being too Hamilton-centric, and the low amount of public feedback on the future of council boundaries was also cause for concern.

Mayor Tim Macindoe said although he was open to the idea, he was concerned a full unitary council for Waikato would be unwieldy

This comes amid major local government reforms signalled by Wellington. Rather than be left with a backstop option, the city council plans to form its own recommendation — proposals must be submitted to the Government by August 9, and there is broad scope for what they could advocate.

While Wednesday’s meeting was about sharing information rather than making decisions, staff made it clear three of the six options didn't make the cut.

These were a merger with Waikato District Council based on the existing IAWAI partnership, a merger with Waikato District Council and Waipā District Council, and a 'Golden Triangle' option.

Staff flagged issues with these options, including not addressing metro growth areas, combining more affluent areas in a way that would not be in the interests of the Waikato region, and low scores for deliverability.

Presentation documents from the meeting said the Metro-Spatial option involved combining 271,000 people and a land area of 765 km².

Under this, Hamilton City Council and parts of Waikato District Council and Waipā District Council would combine to form one unitary authority, and the remainder of the Waikato would combine into another unitary authority.

The Full Waikato option proposed a merging of the entire region, combining 528,250 people and 24,903 km².

The document said this was the most integrated structure, but was potentially too large.

Wednesday’s meeting included a warning against being too Hamilton-centric.

The West-East model involved combining 345,400 people in a land area of 5,984 km². Under this model, western councils would combine together, while eastern councils would do the same.

While councillors voiced concern they did not have as much information as they would like, and some said it was too early to form an opinion or said the West-East option could be a middle ground, overall the mood was one of support for the Metro-Spatial option.

This included Councillor Angela O'Leary, who said it was the best plan based on available evidence, and Deputy Mayor Geoff Taylor, who said this area was already very connected and the plan acknowledged what was already happening.

Mayor Tim Macindoe, who joined by video link from overseas, said Waikato councils were on 'a bit of a collision course' with the Government.

'I think it's very clear that the Government does want a full unitary authority, but it's also equally clear that the vast majority of our Waikato councils across the wider region do not.'

A full unitary council was something he remained open to, but he was concerned it could be unwieldy.

'From a purely selfish Hamilton perspective, I'm putting the Metro-Spatial at number one, the full unitary at number two, and I would have offered [the full) Waikato, Waipā and Hamilton as my number three, but I see that's been taken off the table.'

Echoing several others, Macindoe also flagged the lack of public engagement as a concern.

The recent public consultation period yielded only 530 responses, which he suspected was largely down to a lack of evidence about the options.

Councillor Robbie Neha said whatever the structure of the amalgamation, it was important to care about rural areas, which could class Hamilton as 'the Death Star'.

'The attitude out there is that Hamilton's going to take over everybody. I hope that isn't the case… it's important that we ensure that we hear the voices of our iwi moving forward.'

Council staff are preparing an insight report based on public feedback for elected members to consider as part of the agenda for the August 6 council meeting