Chch City Council seeks public reaction to representation proposal
28 August 2003
Christchurch City Council is asking for public reaction to a proposal that
would lead to the city having eight wards and community boards, with voters
from each ward electing two city councillors.
Elected members from the City Council and its six community boards have
met several times this year as part of a review of representation.
At its monthly meeting today (28 August), councillors voted to
support a new system
which would result in the number of city councillors being reduced
from 24 to 16, supported by eight community boards of six members.
Each board
would have four elected members and two appointed the councillors
representing that ward.
The proposal would not alter the city-wide system for the election of the
mayor.
Next week, the proposed representation scheme will be publicly
notified and open for public comment until 14 October. If there are no submissions
about the Council’s proposal it would be the system used for the 2004
city council and community board elections.
Information about the proposal and how people can become involved should
be available from the end of next week from Council offices, service
centres and libraries and on the Have Your Say website at www.ccc.govt.nz/HaveYourSay
Any submissions that are received would be heard and considered by the
Council’s Strategy and Finance Committee early in November. Then,
by 18 November, the committee must have decided if it will amend today’s
proposal and again publicly notify its decision, as well as any changes
made to today’s proposal and the reasoning behind its decisions.
If there are changes made to today’s proposal in November, there
is a right for anyone to appeal. That includes people or groups
which took part in the original submissions process. The deadline
for this second phase
of the public-feedback process is 20 December. Any appeals would
be sent by the City Council to the Local Government Commission
for a final decision.
That decision would be made by 11 April next year and would be
binding on the City Council for the 2004 elections.
Submissions for this are open from 5 September
to 14 October 2003
 At present Christchurch
City is divided into 12 wards, with
the voters from each electing a pair of councillors and three
community board members. The dozen wards are paired to form the
city’s six community boards, which are made up of six board
members and three councillors appointed by the Council
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