Ashburton ‘deserves better’ representation from ECan

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

Ashburton’s mayor is pleading with Environment Canterbury (ECan) to reconsider a plan to bundle Mid Canterbury in with the South Canterbury councils.

The regional council's proposal would also see the fast-growing Selwyn District become a standalone constituency.

The submission, that mayor Neil Brown will present on Wednesday, argues ECan’s proposed changes would not provide effective representation for Ashburton District or the rural communities of Canterbury.

“If this review goes ahead, there will only be two ECan Councillors from the Rakaia River to Waitaki.”

The council’s submission states that “too heavy a weighting has been placed achieving fair representation, to the detriment of determining effective representation for communities of interest”.

“The Ashburton District makes a significant contribution to the regional economy and deserves better representation.”

An argument put forward is that whatever option ECan considers, there will be some form of non-compliance with the local government legislative requirements.

Ashburton’s position is that as no proposal presented has been completely compliant "it is our view that ECan should shift its focus to consider communities of interest and effective representation as stronger drivers for this representation review”.

The submission proposes four alternative options, all including various Selwyn areas, rather than South Canterbury.

“We believe that issues in rural Selwyn are more aligned with those of our district, and being grouped with Selwyn will continue to give our shared rural communities a strong voice,” Brown said.

Brown and chief executive Hamish Riach will plead the district’s case at Ecan’s hearings on Wednesday.

ECan governance general manager Lisa Goodman said the Ashburton District Council is one of the 217 submitters and one of 15 groups or individuals who will speak at the hearing.

Following the hearings, councillors will consider all the submissions and relevant information to guide staff about developing a Final Proposal for the council to adopt in October Goodman said.

After adoption, it will be open to appeals and if any are received the final decision will go to the Local Government Commission.

**Rough Numbers
The representation review is guided by population ratios – as per the local government act, but the councils south of the Rakaia River argue that should only be one of the factors to consider.

In terms of land area, the proposal to merge Mid Canterbury (12,562 square kilometres) with South Canterbury (17,620sqkm) will create a 29,822sqkm constituency.

That would have two councillors elected to cover half of the entire region's land area, as North Canterbury (17,464km2), Selwyn (6835km2) and Christchurch’s four constituencies (4940km2) combine for 29,239km2.

According to figures supplied by ECan, the Ashburton District’s 17,117 rateable properties will pay a total of $13,069,308 in rates to ECan in 2024-25.

Ashburton is paying 6.7% of the $194,766,652 of total rates, with Christchurch (185,536 rateable units) paying 61.7%, Selwyn (33,506) 10.3%, Waimakariri (28289) 8.4%, and Timaru (21,534) 6%.

Using a simplistic equation - not factoring in any complexities that make up a rates bill – Ashburton pays an average of $764 per property – the highest average of all 10 districts.

The next highest average is Waitaki ($685), followed by Waimate ($677), Christchurch ($648), and Mackenzie ($604).