Council will not go ahead with service centre change

27 July 2006

Christchurch City Council will not contract out financial transactions from its city suburban service centres and will retain its current services.

The idea of using New Zealand Post to collect payments such as rates and dog registration fees and ceasing to offer that facility at suburban service centres in the urban area is included in the long-term council community plan (LTCCP) which came into effect on 1 July.

Councillors today considered advice about the council’s ability to change the implementation of projects in the LTCCP. They were advised that, in this case, so long as they formally recorded their rationale, they could change the project.

In the report councillors voted to support option 2 (item 3 on p5), to:

“Retain the full range of financial services at the current service centres, and not close the Hornby and Riccarton sub-agencies, maintain the current level of service at the Tuam Street Civic Offices, maintain the current level of service at the Banks Peninsula service centres and that general information services be maintained at service centres.

“The Council identifies that this decision is inconsistent with the proposal in the LTCCP to use NZ Post for financial transaction services and to close the Hornby and Riccarton sub-agencies.

“The reasons for this inconsistent decision are that the LTCCP process led to a misunderstanding because of ambiguous wording, after having considered sections 76-79 of the Local Government Act 2002 and the other matters contained in this report to the Council. The Council does not intend to amend the LTCCP, in order to accommodate this decision.”

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