A fiery Western Bay of Plenty District councillor has failed in her attempt to remove the council from Local Government New Zealand.

In a meeting today councillor Margaret Murray-Benge presented a notice of motion that council resign from Local Government New Zealand - the national body that supports the country's councils.

Murray-Benge said the resignation was necessary 'because the association no longer represents us or speaks for the wellbeing of our ratepayers or this council”.

Her gripe was mainly with LGNZ's support of the Three Waters reform - that will see wastewater, stormwater and drinking water, managed by four publically owned entities rather than local councils.

'Before any major proposal, and especially one of this magnitude, Local Government New Zealand should have consulted with all its members. They failed to do so,” said Murray-Benge.

She claimed LGNZ 'did a deal” with the government that for a 'paltry $2m handout agreed to say nothing critical about Three Waters”.

'For 30 pieces of silver they have betrayed us all. We should have nothing further to do with them.

'We councillors have never received so many emails from local ratepayers as we have on the Three Waters proposal, and those emails have been overwhelmingly opposed to the Government's proposal,” said Murray-Benge.

'Here in the Western Bay we have left it to other councils to do the hard work of opposing the Government's scheme.”

The Kaimai Ward councillor was supported by around 20 people in the public gallery including former National Party leader Don Brash.

Three people spoke during the public forum urging councillors to vote in support of Murray-Benge's motion.

Jenny Hobbs spoke in support of Margaret Murray-Benge. Photo: Alisha Evans/SunLive.

Speaking in the public forum, Jenny Hobbs labelled LGNZ an 'expensive layer of democracy that cannot be trusted”.

She urged councillors to 'be bold” and to be a 'strong influencer in the defunding of LGNZ”.

'Send a message to staff in the incoming council that you do not agree with LGNZ signing us up to the three waters programme.”

Councillor Allan Sole supported Murray-Benge's motion, but said it was a 'hard one” for him because LGNZ had been 'very important” to the country and its councils.

'It would be a big loss not to have them and at present, although I second this motion totally, what replaces it or how we work with that is another issue, but we could,” said Sole.

Councillor Allan Sole. Photo: Alisha Evans/SunLive.

'LGNZ agreed not to oppose Three Waters, but to work with government to come to some form of development of it, but there was only one real option there, and that option was a dog.

'All that has happened with all that has gone through so far is that we've got a dog with fleas and the fleas are just being moved around the dog.

'It's a dog with a bundle of fleas and nothing done to fix them.”

He agreed standards needed to be raised with all of the waters.

'It is an issue of how largely we go about funding it, and implementing it, and enforcing it.”

'I don't believe that LGNZ continues or represents our concerns and our local constituents,” finished Sole.

Councillors Kevin Marsh and Anne Henry also spoke in support of the motion.

Mayoral hopeful and councillor Don Thwaites said the motion was not about Three Waters but about membership of LGNZ.

'I as one of the prospective mayoral candidates in this district could not possibly go out to community meetings going forward saying that we don't agree with them, so we are leaving,” he said.

'We must stay within the tent of Local Government New Zealand to drive change.”

Mayoral candidate and councillor Don Thwaites. Photo: Alisha Evans/SunLive.

He said with local government elections coming up he could not support leaving because LGNZ provided councillors with training.

Councillor Murray Grainger said: 'LGNZ has not served us or other councils well and they need a strong message telling them of our dissatisfaction for their performance to date.”

However, he did not agree with the motion as he didn't think it was 'right” for the outgoing council to decide on the future membership of LGNZ.

'I think that's an issue that the new council should take up,” said Grainger.

Councillor Mark Dean also opposed the motion.

'I believe it is far better to be within an organisation and to facilitate any change than to be on the outside of it and criticise it from the outside,” said Dean.

Te Puke-Maketu councillor Monique Gray agreed the motion was not about Three Waters.

'It is about whether LGNZ represents us and speaks for our wellbeing,” said Gray. 'And from my time sitting here, I can say that they have done their part.”

Mayor Garry Webber agreed: 'I believe withdrawing from LGNZ is not only the wrong thing to do.

'It is not the right time to do it because we've only got less than two months of this triennium to go, and the new council will decide whether it wants to be a member or not.

'This late in the day to do this, I won't say it borders on political grandstanding, but it's just in my opinion, not the right thing to do.”

In Murray-Benge's right of reply she said: 'I hold firmly to the view that if you really represent the people of the Western Bay of Plenty, you will, for the first time, actually stand up for them and vote to tell the Local Government Association we have had enough of them and their poor performance”.

'It isn't to do about Three Waters, It isn't to do about anything else, it's to do about their poor performance.”

She received a standing ovation from the public gallery at the conclusion of her speech.

The motion was voted down with four votes in favour and eight opposed.

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