Amalgamation

Press, 10 February 1989, Page 8

Amalgamation

. Sir, —Local body reform — what rot! This forced amalgamation is just another Labour Government roughshod, undemocratic, devious move within the Douglas plan to completely enslave New Zealanders in a taxation bind. Do not forget Labour’s many broken promises. Amalgamation will dramatically increase the central Government’s control of local body affairs, and thus insidiously provide easy access to further indirect taxation. With our rapidly declining standard of living, already excessive taxation (and promised increases), amalgamation will .be the last straw in hastening our vanishing freedoms. New Zealanders must act to block, this forced step into complete tax enslavement. —Yours, etc., JASON S. BRYANT. February 4,1989. Sir,—l agree with several of your correspondents that it is dangerous for the councils to join into one, as bigger is not better. All we have to do is look at the big corporations. They are traditionally the ones with the worst service and getting an answer out of a department is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. In fact, you might have more, luck in the haystack. I am opposed to amalgamation.—Yours, etc., FRANK TAYLOR. February 5, 1989. Sir,—W. J. Thompson (who does not identify himself as chairman, Wairewa County Council) accuses the Lyttelton Borough Council of being parochial in its stance on amalgamation and cites civil defence and noxious plants and hydatids as examples from the past (February 3). The unfairness in charging which led to Lyttelton’s departure from noxious plants control was conceded by Wairewa last year. The situation in civil defence has been unsatisfactory and fluid for some time. Reorganisation moves, including the creation of a Banks Peninsula District, would tidy up the situation, but also limit some of the options formerly available. Lyttelton does not see its other Peninsula neighbours as saviours, but as having a great deal of community of interest with the harbour basin; all have characteristic Peninsula features, small communities, steep topography, bays and harbours, tourism and farming. However, Mr Thompson may not know much about that, as Wairewa has consistently refused to talk to any of its Peninsula neighbours. — Yours, etc., MAHONY MAY, Chairperson, Finance and Policy Committee, Lyttelton Borough Council. February 3, 1989.