Some town and city councils may be merged to ease operations and bring consistency.

Minister for Local Government Premila Kumar says the municipalities will keep their boundaries – but will be run from a central office.

“A good example is Lami and Suva and another good example is Suva and Nausori.”

Kumar says the structure of municipal councils will also be reviewed and positions such as Town Clerk, Director Health Services, Director Engineering and others will be scrapped.

Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has also told Special Administrators to come up with new ideas to make towns and cities more livable and to improve services.

“We are trying to create social spaces, providing services for people – places where they can come and enjoy themselves.”

Practices which have become irrelevant and cause nuisance to ratepayers are also on the way out. All municipalities will now follow the same procedures.