The South Taranaki District Council has voted unanimously to form a unitary council with the Stratford District Council - leaving its northern cousins, the New Plymouth District Council out in the cold.

The decision at an extraordinary council meeting today is designed to meet the government's 9 August deadline for the Head Start pathway for its local government reform.

Mayor Phil Nixon told councillors it was important to meet the deadline.

"We just like the idea of the Head Start because that gives us a way of controlling our own destiny to a certain point. If we just left it until the Backstop [pathway], we would absolutely be at the whim of the government of the day, whoever that will be, when it comes to our election time in 2028."

Stratford District Council votes tomorrow on whether to adopt the two-council model - one in the north and one for central and southern Taranaki.

New Plymouth District Council and the Taranaki Regional Council have been working together on a so-called "Pathfinder Proposal" which stipulates no preference for a future structure, instead putting off until March 2027 a more detailed proposal aligned with the Head Start timeline or the Back Stop pathway.

To meet Head Start criteria, proposals must be submitted by two or more territorial authorities, with regional councils unable to make submissions.

Nixon said Stratford and South Taranaki had similar world views.

"They're are very much communities of interest between the South Taranaki and Stratford district areas. And so, I think that was the main driver with it. Our communities, both the Stratford and the South Taranaki communities, came out very strongly in favour of the two unitary councils.

"The fact that we're rural, we're much smaller towns, especially in South Taranaki, we're made-up of a lot of smaller towns. And so I think that's really the difference.

"We don't always entirely understand what it's like to be in that urban, that city community, as I don't think a lot of them in the heart of New Plymouth always understand our problems and what we go through in the rural areas."

In her report, South Taranaki District Council chief executive, Fiona Aitken urged councillors to support the proposal which would allow them to take advantage of the "light touch" promised via the Head Start pathway.

Her report said community feedback was heavily in favour of south and central Taranaki going it alone.

"In Stratford District Council, 83 percent of over 600 respondents supported this model, and in South Taranaki District Council, support came from 94 percent of almost 1400 respondents.

"Ngāti Ruanui and Ngā Rauru support the two-unitary-authority model for Taranaki, and informally, a third iwi supports the proposed model."

Aitken said many residents were worried about what a Taranaki-wide amalgamation would mean.

"The biggest concerns were a loss of local voice and representation (e.g. decision-making may become less responsive to local issues and priorities) and one-size fits all policies that don't suit different communities (e.g. city versus rural)."

Hāwera ward councillor Andy Beccard thought the proposal could go further.

"Why are we calling it the Stratford and South Taranaki unitary council? Why are we not calling it the Taranaki unitary council? We cover by far the larger landmass, it should be called the Taranaki unitary council."

Beccard also thought the proposal should also more strongly emphasise the difference between the shared rural interests of South Taranaki and Stratford districts when compared to the urban interests of New Plymouth.

Nixon stressed that it was important to be able to continue to work with New Plymouth whatever the outcome of local body reform.

"We certainly need to have a good relationship. We always have. We've been Taranaki as one, and so we need to have a really good working relationship with them.

"People often say to me in South Taranaki, it's all about Hāwera. But to me, the way I look at it is, if Hāwera is not doing well, South Taranaki isn't doing well.

"And it's the same with New Plymouth. If New Plymouth's not doing well, Taranaki isn't doing well."