Council smaller from Oct

The number of city councillors and community board members is to be reduced at October’s local body election, following a decision by the Local Government Commission (LGC).

The LGC decision will halve the number of city councillors, from 24 to 12, while membership of the city’s six community boards will fall from nine (six elected and three appointed councillors) to seven (five elected and two appointed councillors).

This year’s election date is Saturday, 9 October. The Christchurch City Council and community board elections are conducted by postal ballot.

The LGC also simplified the city’s ward structure. At present Christchurch has six community board areas, each made up of two wards. Voters from each ward elected two councillors and three community board members. The LGC has ruled that these paired wards will combine.

It means the city’s current community board areas become its ward areas. The community board area names become the ward names – Burwood-Pegasus, Shirley-Papanui, Fendalton-Waimairi, Riccarton-Wigram, Spreydon-Heathcote and Hagley-Ferrymead. At the October election, each ward will elect two councillors and five community board members. The mayoralty will continue to be contested across the entire city. Population figures from the 2001 census show the boards’ populations range from 51,210 in Fendalton-Waimairi to 54,939 in Riccarton-Wigram. On census day in 2001 Christchurch City district had a resident population of 316,221.

The commission’s decision followed a process of law. Councils are obliged to review their representation arrangements at least once every six years and Christchurch’s Council began that process last year.

It first proposed a 16-member city council, saying it believed it would function more efficiently with fewer members. The Council would be supported by eight community boards, each of four elected and two appointed (councillor) members. The city’s 12- ward segmentation would be altered to match eight proposed community board areas. The scheme drew 128 submissions, which were considered before an amended final proposal was made. The amendments were mainly to do with the names and boundaries of the proposed eight wards.

That final scheme drew 18 appeals and 24 objections and, in early February, the commission sat in Christchurch to hear arguments for and against the Council’s proposal. Its decision came out last month. It decided that a dozen wards were no longer needed to “provide effective representation for communities of interest”. It said residents were familiar with the current system and changing to eight wards would be a significant change, requiring “significant administrative changes to local service delivery in each of the eight wards”. Having six wards, based on the existing community boards, would better reflect communities of interest and provide effective representation.