Coast Councils Agree Local Government Change Is Coming

Wednesday, 1 October 2025, 5:18 pm
Article: Lois Williams - Local Democracy Reporter

West Coast councils believe council reform is looming for the region but are uncertain over what form it should take. 

The region’s three District Councils, Buller, Grey and Westland are now working under one plan regulating land use, after approving the Te Tai o Poutini Plan last week. 

All three mayors considered change was inevitable for local government, they told LDR. 

Grey District mayor Tania Gibson said reform should involve all councils on the West Coast including the Regional Council. 

“That will have to be worked on together, with community involvement. If we don’t, I believe the government will step in and do it for us.” 

The TTPP committee with representatives of the three district councils, iwi and the Regional Council had been a good model of working together in governance, Mrs Gibson said. 

The region’s councils had shown they could collaborate, through their work on a new West Coast water entity, the Mayors, Chairs and Iwi forum, and recent moves to share services, she said. 

Buller Mayor Jaimie Cleine confirmed the TTPP had brought the councils and their planning teams closer together, over the almost six years they had worked on it. But the plan itself did not make amalgamation inevitable, he said. 

“I think rationalisation is a better description of potential changes…this is likely to be required by changes to the RMA, but it is too early to understand what powers will remain in the regions and who is best to deliver those.” 

The coming law changes and the water reforms would drive change and 'efficiencies', more so than the TTPP, Mr Cleine said. 

Westland mayor Helen Lash said if the councils combined, some overheads like separate rating systems could be reduced by having fewer staff, but warned other costs might increase. 

While it might seem logical to roll the councils into one with headquarters located centrally in Greymouth there were risks, given the size of the region, Ms Lash said. 

“You know, it’s 600kilometres from one end to the other and there’s a lot of work to be done to make sure we get this right. We’ve already joined with Greymouth for rubbish collection and it’s the service hub for the Coast, but the fear is if Greymouth becomes the council centre, there’s a risk places like Karamea and Buller and Fox will be left behind.” 

The future of Regional Councils was also up in the air as the Government worked on RMA reforms, Mrs Lash said. 

“That will determine what they do going forward and what their responsibilities will be - I think we’ll see a whole new beast come out. 

To me what’s vitally important, is that I don’t want my further south regions to be missing out, so the structure is going to be vital and how it’s governed. 

“You don’t want a thousand and one new community boards because that would defeat the purpose.”

West Coast Regional Councillor Allan Birchfield, who was deposed as Chair by fellow councillors in 2023 has called for the abolition of the WCRC, after three years of railing against rate increases, long waits for resource consents and spending on environmental work ordained in the RMA. 

The regional functions should be split between the Coast’s three district councils, he said. 

“The bureaucrats have weaponised the RMA against producers …it was supposed to be enabling legislation in 1989, but it’s disabling. We don’t need half the environmental stuff the Regional Council is doing- and if the Government wants it done, it should pay for it, not the ratepayer.” 

The Regional Council’s Deputy Chair, Brett Cummings, said the dust of the coming Government reforms would l have to settle on all four councils before a workable new structure became apparent.

“Once the District Councils lose their water responsibilities, they won’t actually have a lot of big stuff left to do, just parks and libraries and rubbish and some roads and I’m wondering if roads will be the next to go. I think the Government’s got plans, but it’s not telling us yet”. 

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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