Councillors met yesterday to decide the committee structure for the newly-elected council.
They decided on a structure that reduced the number of main standing committees from six to five by combining the compliance and consents committees into a new regulatory committee.
Cr Brian Scott, who was previously deputy chairman of the now defunct consents committee, was appointed chairman of the committee.
New councillor Trevor Kempton was appointed his deputy.
Natural resources committee chairwoman Gretchen Robertson said it was an exciting move, as some considered the council had not done well in the past in integrating the science with people.
The new committee would marry social, cultural and economic considerations with those of science, she said.
Formerly the environmental science committee, it would be the first to have two council directorates reporting to it - the environmental information and science departments, led by director John Threlfall, and policy and resource planning, led by director Fraser McRae.
A higher value would be put on social and cultural considerations, which was important as the council moved towards major changes in the water plan, she said.
Deputy chairman David Shepherd also gets his first chairmanship, taking over the engineering hazards committee formerly presided over by new ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead.
His deputy would be Cr Doug Brown, formerly chairman of the defunct compliance committee.
Former chairwoman of the consents committee Louise Croot was named chairwoman of the objections committee, which would meet when needed to consider objections in consent or statutory decision matters.
She would also lead the commissioner appointment subcommittee.
Crs Duncan Butcher and Michael Deaker retained chairmanship of their committees, finance and corporate and policy and submissions (formerly policy and resource planning) respectively.
Mr Woodhead would retain his position as chairman of the regional transport committee, with Cr Shepherd as the council's additional representative.
