Councillor Sally Buck, who chairs the CCC’s Urban Planning and Growth Special Committee, says the issue is important in Christchurch as growth changes older suburbs and creates new developments and subdivisions on the city’s fringes. “There hasn’t been a lot of integrated planning since the 1970s and it’s good the Government’s wanting to put more emphasis on this area,” Cr Buck says. “We’re making several points about the protocol, but our main points are that change is needed from people, from the professionals and from the agencies like councils and the national roading agencies which do the planning and give consents for work, and we think they all need better integration if we want things to improve.

“One obvious example here is the decision not to give priority to the southern arterial road in Christchurch. As a Council, we’ve long been planning and encouraging growth in the southwest and that roading upgrade is an essential part of the package. The fact it’s not going to happen for so many years could mean those new areas become much less useful as places to live and work and create businesses.”