Canterbury farmer joins push for council shakeup

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

A prominent farmer is calling on the Ashburton District Council to breakaway from Canterbury's regional council.

Allan Andrews, who is among a growing chorus of people calling for shakeup of councils in the wider Canterbury region, presented his concerns to Ashburton councillors last week.

Originally from Glenavy, Andrews is a former Timaru District councillor and South Canterbury Federated Farmers president who has farmed just out of Ashburton for the past 10 years.

He said he worried about Environment Canterbury's (ECan) impact "on the whole of our province”. The community also couldn’t deal with continued heavy rate rises.

The solution was to shake up the existing three tiers of governance, Andrews told councillors.

Ashburton, Timaru, Oamaru, and Waimate rely on the farming industry and need better governance to allow the industry to operate, he said.

Andrews said his preferred model would be to retain the district councils and have a new regional council covering everything south of the Rakaia River to the Waitaki River.

There was a lot of nodding from councillors to some of what Andrews was saying, but there was little vocal support around the table.

During his presentation, he also has raised concerns about the future of irrigation for the region, which he believes a new regional council could help with.

If farmers don't get sufficient irrigation, the land will return to "broom, blackberry, gorse" and be at greater risk of fires, Andrews said.

It’s the second time in recent weeks the council has received a presentation calling for a new council arrangement.

A group presented a proposal to the councils from Selwyn down to Waitaki to break away from ECan and have some form of unitary council.

Ashburton mayor Neil Brown confirmed the proposal was discussed at the recent Canterbury Mayoral Forum without any real enthusiasm by the region's mayors to investigate forming an unitary authority.

“There was no clear directive from all the mayors, but they are aware of the concerns in the community about representation especially from Ashburton to the Waitaki.”

A unitary council – a combination of district and regional council - wasn’t what most councils were after as there is no appetite for council mergers, Brown said.

There remains concern from the southern councils about ECan’s representation review proposal.

An ECan spokesman said the regional council is aware of the discussions around forming a new unitary council, but it is not in scope for the representation review and would be a matter for central government to consider.

When it come sto irrigation, ECan, as the regulator, is responsible for making sure the community’s aspirations are implemented with regard to keeping a minimum flow in the natural waterways.