On Wednesday, Environment Southland went public with results from its new local government reform model which compared different options for the region’s four councils.
Southland’s four councils are the Southland District Council, Invercargill City Council, Gore District Council and Environment Southland.
In contrast, one council option promoted by the Invercargill City Council would save $23 million before 2034 and lead to annual savings of $9.8 million afterwards.
Southland District Mayor Rob Scott said the Environment Southland numbers were ‘‘quite bizarre’’ and he was frustrated about how they had been released.
He said his council had received the numbers the day before but had not approved them.
‘‘There’s been a step missed in there, and I just can’t understand what the rush is to get all of this out.’’
Mr Scott said he was open to whatever model the people of Southland wanted and he was not set on the two-council model; however, he did want data to be tested and agreed on.
Meanwhile, Invercargill Mayor Tom Campbell told Local Democracy Reporting a single council would always be more efficient and the result was ‘‘entirely predictable’’.
He believed the gap was probably larger than shown, but also noted the model was based on assumptions.
Environment Southland’s tool was created in response to the government’s Head Start announcement on May 5 which invited councils to submit reorganisation proposals or risk having decisions made on their behalf.
The region’s four councils have joined forces to establish a working party which will discuss the reforms ahead of the fast-approaching August 9 deadline.
Terms of reference for the group show it will work to a series of guiding principles and deliver a ‘‘thought piece’’ or preliminary recommendations by mid-July.
Reform has been a hot topic in the South since August 2024 when Mr Scott went public with a vision of halving the number of councils in the region.
Mr Scott’s proposal of creating one rural and one urban council is still being investigated separately by the Local Government Commission.
Other options included in the Environment Southland model were two unitary councils with a regional business unit, and one unitary council with a regional business unit.
Those options were predicted to realise annual savings of $4.8 million and $9 million respectively after 2034, it said.
The regional council has maintained operating costs were not the biggest pressure on rates, and the ‘‘modest’’ savings of a restructure would not be felt right away.
It did not provide a response to the district council’s comments about releasing the data.
• LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
