Council representation does not seem to have interested Central Otago residents, after just 79 submitted opinions to last month’s pre-consultation survey.
Central Otago District Council governance manager Wayne McEnteer said he was unconcerned about the low response rate, which equated to about 0.34% of residents engaging in the process.
A representation review occurs every six years to assess all facets of representation in the district. Included in the scope of the current review were the number of elected members, ward boundaries and ward names.
The pre-consultation was held from February 2-25. Two people sent hard copy responses and 77 engaged online.
Ngai Tahu, through Aukaha, was asked for an opinion on establishing a Maori ward and whether the name of the community board should change to Maniatoto. The Maniototo Community Board was also asked for an opinion on changing to the board’s name to Maniatoto.
Population changes in some wards meant that something would have to be done differently to ensure each councillor represented about the same number of people.
To achieve that an extra Cromwell councillor could be added to the table or one removed from Vincent. Adding an extra councillor was the best option according to 22 respondents, while 32 wanted to reduce the number of Vincent councillors and keep the other wards as they were.
A third option of combining Vincent and Cromwell council representation to seven councillors, reducing the total number of councillors to nine plus the mayor was favoured by only 10 people and 14 said they were unsure which option was preferable.
While most respondents thought councillors should continue to be elected by ward, one suggested redrawing the ward boundaries and replacing Vincent and Cromwell with a single urban ward.
The question of how to spell Maniototo divided opinion equally in the Maniototo ward with 12 residents for and 12 against. In the wider district 36 people were for the change, 36 against and seven were unsure.
Mr McEnteer’s report was presented to the CODC meeting yesterday. When councillors have agreed on the representation review, using the information from the pre-consultation survey, it would be put to the community for feedback later this month or early in April, before consultation began on the annual plan.
