There has been a bit of noise in the press about Unitary Councils of late. 

These are councils that undertake both the role of the regional council and the city or district council, and we have six of them in New Zealand at present, Auckland Council, Gisborne District Council, Marlborough District Council, Nelson City Council, Tasman District Council and the Chatham Islands Council.

You may have read of Southland District Mayor Rob Scott raising the idea that his district and Gore merge and take over the roles of Environment Southland in their areas. 

This would leave Invercargill City to look after itself with perhaps a ghost of the previous regional council (Environment Southland) continuing its role there. 

Common sense would suggest if this plan went ahead, ICC (Invercargill City Council) would become unitary as well. 

Four councils become two; what’s not to like? 

There would certainly be some advantages, especially in reducing bureaucratic and governance overheads, but there always needs to be caution in jumping to conclusions. 

I do hope however that this work is progressed to see if this idea really does have legs if there is a chance it will reduce costs to ratepayers.

Similar noises are coming out of the Dunedin City Council, with a first-term councillor getting a notice of motion across the line which included a request for staff to prepare a report on a unitary authority for Otago, which would be delivered to that council by the end of the year. 

You might be interested to know what discussions had been held with the other mayors and councils of Otago before Dunedin charted this course. Zero. None whatsoever. 

And frankly, that is about as high as I would rate the chances of there ever being an Otago-wide unitary council. 

I agree with Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich when he says previous work has shown a chance for a Dunedin unitary council, but not one for the whole of Otago. 

I sat as chair of the Otago Mayoral Forum for five years and if that taught me one thing, it is that the geographical size and the vastly different economies across the region make widespread collaboration very difficult. 

The other thing that makes me very nervous about an Otago-wide unitary authority is that those currently thinking about it would, I am sure, automatically see Dunedin as being the centre of the council, which simply won’t work. 

If there is to be such a council, it should be centrally, or should I say “Centrally” located, so it is in the middle of the area it governs and not out on a limb. 

Housing it where the population growth is happening would make sense too. 

However, I think there is simply no chance of this proposal getting anywhere.

But that doesn’t close the door to all unitary thinking. 

I personally believe there could be merit in QLDC and CODC looking at creating a unitary council over the top of the current two councils. 

In other words, we would keep doing what we are doing how we are doing it, but the functions that the ORC currently undertake in this area would be handed over to the new “Inland Otago Unitary Council”. 

That council could have both mayors and say two councillors from each district council appointed to it, with (controversial) an independent chair agreed by both councils.

That sounds relatively easy at a glance, but it would be a massive operation at a staffing and logistical level. 

Like Mayor Rob Scott’s idea, it would need a lot of work to be done to progress it, and right now, our council for one does not have the capacity to do that work. 

That doesn’t mean though sometime in the future, resource won’t need to be found to take it further than just being a bright idea.