Waikato regional councillor Noel Smith says elected members had barely begun their term when they were told the Government planned to remove regional councillors from the system.
Noel was elected in October 2025, but said councillors were informed by central government about six weeks later that their roles could disappear within months.
“We were elected with a mandate to do something, and then to be told six weeks after being elected that we were gone within a few months was rather distasteful, in my view,” he told Raglan Community Radio.
He said the Government should have signalled its intentions before the election.
The initial proposal to replace regional councillors with a body made up of district and city mayors has since been deferred. Elected regional councillors will now remain until the 2028 local elections, while councils work through the Government’s Simplifying Local Government programme.
Noel said regional councillors still had the job they were elected to do, alongside the added task of helping shape the future of local government in the Waikato.
Under the Government’s Head Start process, two or more councils can submit a preferred reorganisation proposal by August 8. The Government will decide which proposals it supports by the end of September and those councils will get a further 6 months to develop their plans.
Noel questioned the speed of the process but said some form of change now appeared inevitable.
He said some councils were considering smaller groupings, while support appeared to be growing in the western Waikato for a larger arrangement centred on the Waikato and Waipā river catchments.
Scale brings benefits, but smaller councils are wary of city dominance
Noel has supported the idea of a unitary authority for some time and said he saw potential benefits while serving for 15 years on Waikato District Council and observing Auckland’s amalgamation.
A unitary authority combines the responsibilities of regional, district or city councils within one organisation.
Noel understood concerns that smaller rural communities could be absorbed into an authority dominated by Hamilton.
“I totally agree with that, and that’s the feedback that I’m getting,” he said.
However, Noel said a region-wide model could be structured to prevent Hamilton dominating, pointing to the current regional council, where Hamilton holds four of 14 seats.
He estimated the Waikato region had between 500,000 and 530,000 residents, with about 190,000 living in Hamilton.
“So there’s no domination of Hamilton to the region at the moment within the regional council,” Noel said.
Another concern raised with him was whether ratepayers outside Hamilton could become responsible for the city’s debt.
River management should remain under one umbrella
Noel said the strongest argument for retaining a region-wide structure was the need to manage river catchments as connected systems.
Regional council responsibilities include flood protection, river and drainage schemes, erosion control, sediment management and environmental restoration across district boundaries.
He pointed to an intense rainfall event earlier this year when more than 200mm reportedly fell in Ōtorohanga over a short period.
Although his property in Whatawhata received only about 15mm, he said the effects of the storm could be seen moving downstream through the Waipa River about a week later.
Catchment-wide management was also important because five Treaty settlements are connected to the Waikato River, and the regional council already works with iwi partners across the catchment.
Dividing the Waikato or Waipā catchments between several new councils could result in different approaches being applied to different sections of the same river system.
“It’s not sensible, in my personal view, to break a catchment up and manage it differently,” he said.
He had also been asked by another regional councillor to prepare a paper on catchment-based reform, suggesting the position had support from other elected members.
Regional council role not widely understood
Although city and district councils have been directed to develop the initial proposals, Noel said regional councillors and staff were heavily involved in supporting the process.
He said some territorial authorities did not fully understand the range of services currently delivered at regional level.
These include environmental management, public transport, flood protection assets, regional civil defence, maritime responsibilities and economic development – all functions that would need to be incorporated into the new local government structure.
Councils considering smaller groupings – like Waitomo partnering with Ōtorohanga – would still need to work with councils downstream of the Waipa river.
West Coast catchment committee remains on hold
Noel said plans to re-establish the West Coast catchment committee had been paused following the Government’s initial proposal to remove elected regional councillors.
The committee would provide a closer connection between the regional council and people with direct knowledge of the west coast and its catchments.
Noel and other councillors had supported restoring this kind of local committee after the election, but the proposal was put aside when the Government announced major changes to the regional council model six weeks later.
“It’s probably on hold rather than not done,” Noel said.
Plan Change 1 not yet final
Noel also clarified that the Environment Court’s June 8 release on Waikato Regional Plan Change 1 did not bring the 13-year process to an end.
The court issued further directions, with Waikato Regional Council and the remaining appellants still required to respond. The final wording of the plan changes must then be compiled and approved by the court.
Noel said he expected the process to be completed later in the year.
Once the decision is final, the regional council will be required to give effect to it. However, Noel said elected members wanted to be involved in how the new rules were implemented.
“Our staff are saying, ‘No, no, that’s our job, and you guys stay out of it,’” he said.
Noel said there was an active behind-the-scenes discussion about the respective roles of staff and elected members. Councillors wanted staff to work with elected representatives and affected groups, including farmers, vegetable growers and iwi, to ensure implementation was fair and transparent.
At the same time, Noel said Government ministers had signalled rule changes that could override or alter parts of Plan Change 1, a process that began about 13 years ago.
Noel said ministers had raised the possibility of pausing aspects of the process while those national changes were developed, but no final decision had been made.
He described the situation as highly fluid, and was hesitant to predict how the process would ultimately play out, saying the Environment Court proceedings and proposed government reforms were still unfolding at the same time.
Raglan Bus Can’t Be Improved – Yet
A group of Raglan residents is planning a public meeting in July to raise concerns that local bus services are inadequate compared with those available in other parts of the region
Regional bus contracts are currently out for tender following community consultation last year.
He said no changes were planned to Raglan service frequency or operating hours in the short term and school-assisted services would continue.
Medium and longer-term plans included an internal Raglan bus and additional services between Raglan and Hamilton, with further off-peak and weekend services proposed over time.
The longer-term plan included services potentially running every two hours during off-peak periods and at weekends.
However, the improvements depend on funding from the New Zealand Transport Agency.
NZTA currently meets 51 per cent of the cost of contracted bus services. Noel said it had indicated that no additional funding was available for extra services.
Any additional service introduced without that support would therefore need to be funded entirely from local sources, rather than having its cost shared with NZTA.
“Without the money, we can’t provide it,” Noel said.
The proposed improvements remain in the longer-term programme, but the regional council, or whichever organisation replaces it, would need to secure the necessary funding before they could proceed.
Public meeting in Raglan
Noel will attend the Strengthening Our Voice in Local Government public meeting from 2pm to 4pm on Sunday, June 28 at Raglan Town Hall.
The meeting will also feature former Auckland deputy mayor Penny Hulse and Waikato District Mayor Aksel Bech.
Hosted by Raglan Naturally Community Trust in partnership with Raglan Community Radio, the meeting will give residents an opportunity to learn more about the reform programme and discuss what any new council structure should mean for Whāingaroa.