The biggest changes to local government in decades are happening, amalgamation of Local Councils, and all NZ Councils MUST prepare plans for change.

The biggest changes to local government in decades are happening, amalgamation of Local Councils, and all NZ Councils MUST prepare plans for their communities. There will be surveys happening over the next month, or so, to tell the NPDC what is important to you.

If you don’t tell the NPDC what’s important they will put forward what they think is best, as they will have no choice if the community doesn’t participate.

Making sure Taranaki retains its local voice is a criteria that can be considered as important when Local Council Plans are assessed by Central Government. Make sure you have your say about what is important with YOUR local voice. 

We have been working with the NPDC on getting open field boxes into surveys – where you can type the words YOU want to put. This survey has plenty of open text boxes. So, for people who say “they do whatever they want anyway” this survey has lots of places to say “what YOU want”, and what is important for YOU.

Central government has announced big changes to how local government will be structured, with the aim of reducing the number of councils across New Zealand. This is called the Head Start Pathway – Simplifying Local Government.

We have attached a few pages from the Head Start Pathway document, outlining some of the regional council activities which need to be combined with local council activities.

We will NOT be voting for Regional Councils in the next election, so regional council functions will need to be done by local councils. The central government do not want duplication of these functions across a region in the new region structure.

Mentioned in the Head Start document are some of the regional council activities which will be affected with amalgamation. Things like regional planning, transport, and catchment management. Depending on where you live, urban or rural areas, make sure you say what’s important.

New Plymouth District Council will take part in the Government’s Head Start amalgamation programme voluntarily. If local councils don’t voluntarily work out how amalgamation will happen, the central Government will make the decisions for them.

Central Government is working on the new Resource Management Act and significant changes are coming with how this will be managed. Local Councils need to work on amalgamation plans quickly to meet timelines with RMA changes.

A high level amalgamation plan for Taranaki must be with Central Government by 9^th August.

The survey, for your thoughts about amalgamating our local councils, more information, and FAQ's, are here:

https://haveyoursay.npdc.govt.nz/shaping-taranakis-future

The survey is open until midnight on 28^th June.

There will be more consultation, this survey is just trying to get a feel for what types of things are important to local people before preparing the next stages.