New constituency boundaries for Greater Wellington

The Greater Wellington Regional Council has voted to introduce new constituency and representation arrangements for the 2007 Local Government elections.

The proposed new arrangements will see the Porirua and Kapiti constituencies merged to create one new constituency electing three representatives. The proposal will leave all other constituency boundaries unchanged, and retains a total of 13 councillors on the Regional Council including two for the Wairarapa constituency.

The decision was largely driven by the requirements of the Local Electoral Act that require that constituencies differ in the number of electors by no more or less than ten percent.

“Councillors found it difficult to reconcile the demands of submitters for local and distinct representation for their communities, with the requirements of the Act that constituency populations differ by no more or less than ten percent from the average,” said Councillor Margaret Shields, Chairperson of the Representation Review Subcommittee.

“Where the population of a community is substantially smaller than the average size of a constituency, the Act makes it difficult to justify a separate constituency. In the greater Wellington region we found that we couldn’t accommodate the need for two representatives in the Wairarapa, and separate constituencies in Kapiti and Porirua, within the same scheme. In the end we decided to propose the retention of two representatives in the Wairarapa, and as a result the merging of Porirua and Kapiti.”

The public will now have the opportunity to lodge appeals and objections, which will then be forwarded with the proposal to the Local Government Commission for consideration.

ENDS

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