Schemes among toughest -Elwood

Press, 7 October 1988, Page 3

Schemes among toughest -Elwood

By

WILLIAM HOBBS

in Nelson

Preparing regional schemes for Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast was one of the most difficult of all the Local Government Commission’s reorganisational tasks, said the chairman, Mr Brian Elwood, yesterday.

His comments came after a four-hour meeting with local government representatives from the three regions, with the exception of Blenheim Borough, which boycotted it.

The question-time after the meeting to outline proposals for NelsonWestland and Marlborough regions was also the longest the commission had been subjected to since the present round of regional meetings began. Questions and comments about the new regions and district councils had indicated a higher level of support for the commission’s proposals on territorial, or district, councils than for regional councils, Mr Elwood said. There was still much confusion about the ultimate role of regional government and this was reflected in parochial attitudes that still persisted. It was possible that the lack of final decisions by the Government on the future responsibilities of regional government could be partly responsible for this, but although the Government had not announced firm proposals it had given clear signals about the way it saw regional government developing. The commission had been very supportive of Marlborough’s efforts to reorganise itself at district level, but it had to change its attitude to regional government because of the different criteria that came with the law change in July.

Mr Elwood said he had hopes that Marlborough and Nelson would voluntarily see the sense of getting closer together at regional level now that indicative proposals forreorganisation had been published. The most significant thing about the proposals was the independence of the territorial system, which was the part of regional and district government that was important to most people. “Maybe with our views known, the two regions (Nelson and Marlborough) may be able to bury their differences, which are historical and go back to 1859,” Mr Elwood said.

“We are trying to deal with the needs of the twenty-first century, not the problems of the nineteenth.” But Mr Elwood said he did not want to proffer advice to Marlborough on regional government. “We would prefer them to come to a view of their own on regional government. It is not something they have had to think about seriously before. “No part of New Zealand exists without its neighbours. Marlborough is not an island. It cannot make decisions in isolation.”

Mr Elwood said the commission did not propose to convene a special meeting to discuss the indicative proposals with members of the Blenheim Borough Council after their boycott of yesterday’s meeting.