In my view we do not have two population centers in Otago. We have 254,000 people in Otago with 133,000 of them in Dunedin – 52% of Otago’s population and the rest are spread around the region with a big tourist/retail/holiday-home centre growing around Queenstown/Frankton/Wanaka.

The current 10 Councils in Otago/Southland are not good for Dunedin, with our Port and Harbourside land split from the DCC and 10 Councils wastefully running their own infrastructure with insufficient scale or regional integration.

We no longer have the tyranny of distance for governance with fast travel, internet and zoom so it makes no sense to have a regional base in Alexandra or anywhere except Dunedin.

There is another 105,000 people living all over Southland with half of them in Invercargill.

Only 359,000 people live in Otago/Southland and One Unitary Council could easily manage that number and much more efficiently than the 10 dysfunctional Councils and their bureaucracies that we currently subsidise.

This is why Central Government is overhauling and combining Councils and we should embrace the opportunity of win/wins for all of us rather than wanting to maintain our little parochial patches.