Southland District Mayor Rob Scott is proposing the creation of two new councils, one urban and one rural, to replace Southland's four existing councils.

Southland is currently governed by the Southland District Council, Gore District Council, Invercargill City Council [ICC] and Southland's Regional Council - Environment Southland [ES].

Scott said four councils was too many for a population of 100,000, so now was now time to have this conversation.

"There’s a lot of efficiencies we can do by merging together and preliminary estimates show $10 million a year can be saved,’ he said.

“Simply put, a structural reform proposal led by Southland District for the benefit of the community it serves along with other communities in Southland is required."

"This is likely to involve stepping away from what has traditionally been adopted in Southland and looking elsewhere in the country where an alternative model to two tiers of local government within a region has been operating successfully.”

This could see 20 fewer councillors, two fewer chief executives, two fewer mayors/chair, and two fewer long term plans.

One of the key principles for Southland District Council is the retention of a local voice, and empowering the community boards and river liaison committees to be able to do more through further delegations. It is also important to ensure the unique identity and characteristics of Gore are recognised.

 “This proposal will reduce cost, improve efficiency, reduce complexity and keep the local in community decision-making. There’s also more alignment in catchments and the ability to have a one-stop shop for consenting." 

“We need to lead the way and look for the right structure for Southland now, rather than wait for something to happen, which never does,” Scott said.

 “We, as the elected representatives of the people of Southland, need to hear the call for change and be brave enough to look at other local government models, such as unitary authorities, which have been done successfully in other parts of New Zealand,” he said.

In particular, there are a lot of similarities between Nelson and Tasman unitary authorities and what could be happen here in the south, as Tasman is rural, with environmental issues to manage, and Nelson is principally urban with a different set of issues to cover.

Scott said he did not believe a single unitary authority for all of Southland would work as there are totally different communities of interest in district and urban communities and so priorities would not align. 

The work that has been done so far is preliminary and a lot more is needed, as is a lot of discussions, debate and conversations across the councils and across the province, he said.

Economics and efficiency are important in evaluation of a new local government structure, and so is the communities of interest that are identified, protected and ideally enhanced in this reorganisation proposal.

“It won’t be an overnight thing – there’s a lot of work to be done before it even goes to the Local Government Commission for a decision.

Scott said the next step would be for council representatives to discuss the pros and cons of the proposal, along with conversations with iwi and other stakeholders so that everyone in Southland was part of the process.

ES Chairman Nelson Horrel said the amalgamation proposal was timely.

"In my view, seeking efficiencies makes sense where similar services exist."

"I’m less certain that, at first read, the [SDC] Mayor’s proposal is where we’ll end up but let’s work together as a region for the best Southland solution," Horrell said.

Gore District Mayor Ben Bell said he was not opposed to having a conversation but worried that the proposal as announced was factually incorrect, misleading and essentially selling struggling ratepayers hugs and rainbows.

Bell said his priority was ensuring the Gore council did what is best for the Gore District.

Amalgamation was one of the many options for our Council as a potential solution to rising rates, he said.

ICC Mayor Nobby Clark said while he had discussed the proposal with Scott, he said it was not appropiate for him to make further comment until the Gore District Council and Environment Southland had had time to consider it."

“I also need time to discuss the proposal with my elected colleagues and our Chief Executive," Clark said.