Chch City Council seeks public reaction to representation proposal

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 ¨C 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.

¡ñ 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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