Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Let's hope the Government hasn't lost its nerve on amalgamations

It has been revealed the Government has pumped the brakes on the council reform it was rushing to get done. I think the councils and mayors who are angry about this have every reason to be really, really cross.

Dion Swiggs of ECan says he's 'disgusted'. Timaru's mayor says this is 'disappointing'. Mackenzie District's mayor says he's 'utterly disappointed'. Porirua's mayor says she's 'fuming' and has called the Government 'cowards'.

And fair enough, too. The Government was warned that the three-month timeframe it gave mayors and councils earlier this year to get their plans in, or else 'we'll do it for you', was unreasonable and far too fast.

You know how I feel about these mayors and councils, right? I'm not usually one to give them praise. But credit where it's due: they tried to meet the deadline, they tried to do the right thing and they got their plans in. Now they've been told they did all of that for absolutely nothing.

The plans they hurried to submit by August 9 still have not been decided on nearly two months later and they won't be decided on for at least another four months. If there's a change of Government, they'll have to survive that as well.

If I were them, I'd be furious. What a waste of their time. More importantly for you and me as ratepayers, what a waste of their money.

Canterbury's five major councils have spent nearly half a million dollars on these plans. Waimakariri District Council spent $129,000. Selwyn District Council spent $116,000. Ashburton spent $34,000. Timaru spent $106,000.

Wellington's councils spent a quarter of a million dollars collectively.

We'll never know how much of that money didn't need to be spent because of the rush to get this done. Some of that spending will have been the direct result of the compressed timeframe, if you know what I mean. In Ashburton's case, because it never submitted a plan in the end, all of it was wasted. The entire $34,000 did not need to be spent.

Forcing that expenditure from a Government that has repeatedly harped on about councils wasting ratepayer money is incredibly disappointing.

Here's hoping this delay does not portend something worse. Here's hoping the Government is genuinely overloaded with work and is not actually losing its nerve over these amalgamations.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.