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Selwyn District Council has not ruled out joining Christchurch in a merger.
Councils have until August 9 to present amalgamation options to the Government under the Headstart Pathway aimed at restructuring local government.
On Wednesday, Selwyn district councillors unanimously decided to further investigate three options:
- An amalgamation with Christchurch and Waimakariri, but only if the door was left open for Hurunui.
- Selwyn will also look at becoming a standalone unitary authority.
- An amalgamation between Selwyn and the Ashburton District.
The council is expected to have a 10-day consultation starting on Thursday or Friday.
Said Mayor Lydia Gliddon: “I think it is really important that we put options to our community to help form some further decisions.”
Prior to voting, councillors Aaron McGlinchy, Denise Carrick, Samuel Wilshire and deputy mayor Brendan Shefford wanted the council to explore a Selwyn unitary authority and a Selwyn-Ashburton merger.
Councillor Sarah Barnsley supported a Selwyn unitary authority and joining all canterbury councils except Christchurch.
Councillor Sophie McInnes supported the same position as Barnsley and wanted to look at a merger with Selwyn, Christchurch and Waimakariri.
Mayor Lydia Gliddon and councillor Tracey Macleod wanted the council to explore a Selwyn unitary authority, a Selwyn-Ashburton merger and a Selwyn, Christchurch and Waimakariri amalgamation.
Macleod was unconvinced any merger would work at all or deliver the savings the Government wants. Her research found other mergers globally have cost more and, in some cases, have been reversed because they failed.
Prior to the council decision, Gliddon said the three-month deadline was "significantly challenging" after initially expecting to have two years to develop options to replace regional councils.
"I think if we had the two years, we originally anticipated, we would actually end up in quite a different space because we would have an understanding of the RMA reform and what functions we were going to be left with," Gliddon said.
Gliddon believed merging all Canterbury councils may have worked if they had the full two years.
McInnes called the process “utterly ridiculous” because of the short timeframe and the large amount of information that is still unknown.
Wednesday's decision followed a large community response to a council survey, which received 6900 submissions.
Survey results showed 46% of respondents wanted the district council to explore amalgamating with neighbouring councils and becoming a Selwyn-based unitary authority.
Other survey results showed 34% of respondents wanted the council to explore only becoming a Selwyn-based unitary authority, while 13.2% said the council should only look at amalgamation.
The latest data shows Selwyn’s population is expected to grow from 87,600 to 120,000 by 2035, and if the current growth rate continues, it could reach 160,000 by 2055.