News from Greater Wellington Regional Council Te Pane Matua TaiaoThe Regional Council has agreed that regional functions like flood protection, public transport, and environmental management must continue to be managed at scale – and has identified that a single unitary authority for the Wellington region can deliver this objective. Deputy Chair Ros Connelly says multiple unitary authorities in the Wellington region could compound complexity rather than simplify local government. The Regional Council will now write to ministers and political party leaders advocating for a single unitary authority designed collaboratively that maintains regional functions and retains local voice. 10 Agrees that the Greater Wellington Regional Council’s functions and responsibilities in flood management, public transport, environment management, harbours management and regional spatial planning, are most effectively managed at scale. 13 Agrees that councils are inherently community bodies and decisions to reform local government should be subject to a regional public referendum.