The amalgamation of Bay of Plenty's territorial authorities is a case of when, not if – is what Tauranga City Councillors have learned this week.

Following a TCC workshop to bring new councillors up to speed, Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby says it will take at least two years to produce something coherent – but he's hoping a start will be made later this month, when the mayors and committee chairs of all the Bay of Plenty Councils meet in Rotorua for their triennial meeting.

The current Bay of Plenty Local Authority Shared Services region

With Napier City Council and Hastings District Council being amalgamated and the Waikato region's councils on the way to coming together – the wider Bay of Plenty's territorial authorities have so far been left in the middle, and with hanging questions.

Questions are sprouting among ratepayers, as to what's going to happen to Gisborne, which is left out of Napier-Hastings? And what happens to Taupo?

'My personal view is get the mayors and chairs round the table later this month,” says Stuart. 'It would be good if we can get a Bay of Plenty-wide agreement on the way forward, with absolutely no pre-determination on any outcome.

'Our preference would be to get some independent work done on options; that would be the first step. Our view on that was it would have to be based on evidence and have a high level of credibility to it.”

Stuart thinks this is going to take two years or more.

'We want to be pro-active not reactive. What that means is we don't want to wait for somebody else to do a proposal, because anybody can do it, any individual any organisation. It doesn't have to be a council.”

Stuart says the one thing everyone has agreed on so far is the region's shareholding in the Port of Tauranga should remain as is, with Quayside Holdings and remaining independent.

'There's just far too much at stake to start meddling with that.”

Western Bay of Plenty Mayor Ross Paterson says simply amalgamating with Tauranga will not provide the change needed to kick start local government amalgamation.

'I would support a more ambitious goal, designed to economically leverage the whole of the region, and to balance the needs of a growing and ageing population, with the issue of affordable services and the protection of our communities' democratic rights,” says Ross.

'It would be very foolish indeed to put our communities through several stages of ‘scaling up' because we failed to get it right in the first instance.

Ross says he is committed to ensuring the move to amalgamation will be fit-for-purpose in the long term, while acknowledging the compelling argument of the region's communities to be represented, and to speak, with one voice.

'I am on record as saying we will be thinking far more broadly about what is in the best interests of the entire Bay of Plenty region. Rest assured our communities' interests will remain at the centre of our thinking.”

In Hawke's Bay, the Local Government Commission is consulting on one new authority called Hawkes Bay Council, population 158,000 – replacing four district councils and Hawke's Bay Regional Council.

The draft proposal is looking at one mayor and nine councillors elected from five wards, plus five Boards representing diverse communities and a Maori board. Hawke's Bay covers 14,150 square kilometres – compared to the Bay of Plenty with 12,200 square kilometres.

The proposal would result in 47 elected representatives instead of the current 57, one for every 3286 people (currently 2852 people per representative).

Meanwhile, 2014 is expected to be a key year for the Waikato, which has been working on its options since the region's last triennial meeting.

Further south, in Wellington, two applications have been accepted and notified for alternatives by the Local Government Commission, back in June.

They alternatives are: Merging the three Wairarapa District Councils; Masterton, Carterton and South Wairarapa; or for a Greater Wellington Regional Council, with a two-tier Wellington UA, covering the Wellington Region that would mean the abolition of all nine of the current councils across the region.