More local body reorganisation soon?

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 26

More local body reorganisation soon?

PA Auckland . Amalgamation of local bodies is one way of giving ratepayers value for money, according to the Minister of Local Government, Mr Highet. “Local Government reform is an important means of achieving more cost-effec-tive use of local government resources,” he told a local government seminar in Auckland. Local authorities had to be big enough to command the resources they needed to carry out their, responsibilities. In some parts of New Zealand, such authorities did not measure up to that criterion.

Mr Highet said the Local Government Commission was about to start investigations into possible re-organ-isation, now that its task of setting up regional authorities had been completed. He predicted that the public would have to "be shown evidence of the efficiencies of amalgamation. More attention, should be paid to the effect on local authority staff, he said. "Mr Highet said he had heard that a small borough

and a large city in the Auckland area had dropped amalgamation discussions soon after the borough’s town clerk was told he could not be assistant town clerk in the new organisation. “One can scarcely blame any local authority officer for wanting to frustrate a

local government reorganisation proposal if that is the way in which staffing and employment issues are being handled.” He said that a draft bill rewriting the local authorities (employment protection) legislation had been proposed to iron out such problems.