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| Changes afoot for local government |
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By Sue Newman January 4 2012
And while the change in local government structure may not be that dramatic, Mr McKay said that Canterbury's mayors are already talking change. "The mayors of Canterbury have asked their chief executives to come up with, and have ready for the first mayoral forum of the new year, a process by which Canterbury can discuss a way forward for local government amalgamation." How that plays out will be up to the constituents in each territorial local authority, rather than the mayors, Mr McKay said. "We've already talked around the edges of this and the other councils are like Ashburton, we all want to preserve our own identity but that's not to say some of our services can't be shared. "Ultimately what happens will be for the people of Ashburton to decide, it won't be the mayor forcing the district to have a particular model." In Canterbury, there is an added impetus for change because the commissioners' warrant to manage Environment Canterbury expires at the 2013 local body elections. If the organisation is to be handed back to elected members to run, that needs to be decided by the end of this year. Mr McKay predicts that change in local government structure in Canterbury will inevitably be driven by, and be part of, decisions on the future governance of Ecan. How far any amalgamation or re-organisation would go was unclear and would be the subject of long debate, he said. "It's interesting that Nick Smith is now minister of both environment and local government. "You'd have to ask, is there a message in this for the coming year? "The mayors are saying, what this space." Some Ashburton services were already being outsourced to ease workload, but people weren't always happy when they knew consents for their work were being processed in Auckland, Mr McKay said. "We've been doing this so we could process the work in the best possible time frame, but would people really want this done in Christchurch or Auckland full time? "Is this where we're heading?" With Cera dealing with Christchurch's post earthquake recovery, a greater Christchurch model that stretched from Rangiora to Rolleston had already been created. If this became the super-city the debate for rural council's would be about forming the best working model that allowed each to preserve its own identity, he said.
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