Stop the madness

Local government amalgamation deadlines nonsensical

From the wilds of Central Otago I am cheering loudly, clapping enthusiastically and hooping and hollering “go you good thing” to the councils in Taupo, Tararua and Rangitikei who are basically saying to the government “get stuffed.”

I write this on the last day of July. In ten days the deadline imposed by Local Government Minister Simon Watts for the country’s local authorities to find a dance partner or two runs out.

It was always a ridiculous idea. Turkeys do not vote for Christmas even if you give it a flash corporate name like “Head Start.”

Meanwhile in my local authority, the lightly populated but geographically sprawling Central Otago District, we are appalled at the council deciding they want to be in bed with two hopelessly run outfits known as Queenstown Lakes and Clutha.

Up north the good councillors at Taupo and Tararua couldn’t see any logic being forced to combine with neighbours.

So they’ve told the minister there won’t be a proposal.

This will be interesting.

Who’s going to blink?

Down here, let me put it absolutely unequivocally – WE WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THE QUEENSTOWN LAKES DISTRICT COUNCIL

It has overseen the ruination of the country’s tourism gem through greed and appallingly poor planning. To us neighbours, that is those who live upwards of an hour away, Queenstown is a place to be avoided.

When you pass Lake Hayes on State Highway 6 at 8am on a weekday, give yourself an hour to reach downtown as you go bumper to bumper over the Shotover Bridge, battle past the Events Centre and the four year (!) BP Roundabout project and then crawl around Frankton Arm to finally make it to town, where getting a carpark is like winning the lottery.

That’s a mere 20 kilometres.

Remarkably the QLDC is keen on approving another 1400 houses at Ridgeburn, just off SH 6 on the way to Lakes Hayes from Cromwell and, hold your breath, 2800 more homes at Homestead Bay on SH 6 south to Kingston on the way to Invercargill, past Jacks Point.

There are probably other high density housing projects I haven’t mentioned which are in the wind as well. The attitude is just madness. Build more homes. Get more people there.

But is anyone building any more bridges over either the Shotover or Kawarau Rivers ?

Is anyone widening the chronically clogged roads to make them 4-lane or even 6 lane instead of 2?

Is there a plan for a sewerage system that doesn’t attract abatement notices from the Otago Regional Council because waste water is being discharged into the Kawarau River, down to Cromwell and .. Central Otago District.

Oh, and did I mention that QLDC is $650 million in debt?

As for Clutha DC, based around the small town of Balclutha, the debt forecast is a mere $156 million. Pretty bad for a population of 19,000.

Meanwhile in Central Otago, despite an ungainly and completely inappropriate new Events Centre and Museum complex which cost a ludicrous $40 something million, the council debt is a manageable $50 million and the annual operations have produced recent surpluses.

So why would the Central Otago District Council want to deal with these financial cot cases and, in the case of Queenstown, a tourist town ruined by pure greed and an inability to face the realities of geography?

Why not take some inspiration from Taupo and Tararua and tell central government your demands for amalgamation are just stupid?

Simon Watts and Chris Bishop are badly mistaken trying to re-organise local government under a tight time frame. Putting the pressure on the councils themselves is nonsensical. If they’re serious about changing things to make it more efficient then start with the legislation that governs a council’s very existence, the 2002 Local Government Act.

Make the duties of councils prescriptive, set up water entities free from iwi interference and grifting and set up regional back office finance, HR and health and safety services.

Then instead of joining local authorities together. make them smaller, leaner and more local with specific duties prescribed, and no more.

Queenstown is a disaster requiring special intervention. Central government should insist on no more resource or building consents until some decent infrastructure is built.

This is a totally biased opinion. But my life as a Central Otago ratepayer will not be improved by being part of the same local authority as Queenstown.

My council should have told the Local Government Minister to take a hike.

Too bad they didn’t do what Taupo and Tararua and Rangitikei did.