Both Lower Hutt and Porirua voters seem to back the idea of exploring the idea of amalgamation between Wellington region’s councils.
Before the 2025 local body elections, both Hutt City Council and Porirua City Council decided to ask voters on their ballots whether they should explore creating one council for the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington.
The question stated that the council would combine relevant services and functions regionally, while keeping appropriate local services and decision-making local.
By the evening of election day, Saturday, 11 October, with 85% of votes tallied, results so far show:
In Porirua: 7404 people supported the idea, 5622 did not support it and there were 454 blank votes.
In Lower Hutt: 13,290 voters supported amalgamation, 10,865 did not support it, with 959 blank votes.
When RNZ reported on plans to ask the question earlier this year, Porirua Mayor Anita Baker, who has been re-elected, said the idea of amalgamation was always discussed, but voters were never asked what they thought about it.
On Saturday, newly elected Wellington Mayor Andrew Little said the question came up quite a bit, when he was campaigning.
“There is a degree of support, at least a real willingness to explore it, what it means and what it might look like.”
Little said more people thought of the area as a region.
“You think of one of our biggest assets, which is the airport and the airport company, it’s a facility that serves the whole region.”
He said the way people lived their lives in the Wellington region was changing.
“We will have to think about how local government reflects that.”
By Nick James of rnz.co.nz
