The town council of Garðabær has rejected a proposal from Kópavogur to enter into talks of combining into a single municipality.
The proposal comes scarcely two months after the affluent Garðabær narrowly voted to absorb debt-ridden Álftanes. The final results of that vote showed 53.11% approving the merger, while 46.89% were against it.
RÚV now reports that Garðabær has officially rejected a proposal from Ómar Stefánsson and Ólafur Þór Gunnarsson to merge their municipalities together.
Ólafur’s name may be familiar to some Grapevine readers – last October, he put forward the idea of merging the entire capital area into a single municipality, tentatively called “Heiðmörk”
“These different municipalities are engaged in varying degrees of cooperation with each other already,” he told Grapevine at the time. “This idea would simply take things a step further.”
While disappointed with the rejection from Garðabær, he told RÚV that he has not yet given up hope – there are still municipal elections to come, which may see a new crop of politicians more open to the merger idea.
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!
