For immediate release
JOIN WITH WELLINGTON - YOU MUST BE JOKING!
* If Porirua City joined with Wellington City there would be a Porirua Community Board.
We would swap a city council for a community board, and overnight double our problems.
The Community Board would be like the present council but with no money.
It would attract less competent people than the present councillors.
After about a decade it would fold.
We would find that our rates would be set by the Wellington City Council to maintain the high traditional level in
Porirua.
Wellington ratepayers will not agree to subsidize Porirua.
Our money would eventually subsidize development in other parts of Wellington City.
People should remember what happened when Capital Health and Coast Health amalgamated into Capital and Coast Health.
From that day on our hospital was downgraded until we have now lost even the accident and emergency service.
Taxes collected in Porirua for health is being spent by a Wellington dominated Health Board.
People with Porirua's best interest at heart should think very carefully before they advocate amalgamation with
Wellington.
The fact that the Porirua Council is not working at the moment, does not mean that it cannot be made to work.
It is all a question of insight, credibility, and communication. With competent leadership the Council and the City
would straighten out very quickly.
We should have no fears for the future and should simply tackle the existing problems.
ENDS