The Hurunui District Council has formally endorsed the initial proposals for its Representation Review and is now seeking public feedback. The resulting feedback will be presented to the council before a further proposal for the district’s representation model is settled on.

Local Government law requires all councils to review their representation model every six years and because the Hurunui District’s last review took place in 2012, a review is due this year. One of the representation criteria is to have an equal distribution of population between the councillors in each ward to ensure all residents have the same opportunity for representation at the council table.

The Hurunui’s five ward model no longer fits the population to councillor formula so the council needs to make changes. As a result of multiple councillor workshops, four proposed alternatives to the Hurunui’s current ward and councillor model are to be made public for the council to seek initial feedback on before the review is progressed further.

Hurunui District Council’s Public Services Manager, Audrey van der Monde, says the council’s endorsement of the initial proposals will enable the community to get involved and to influence the next stage of the review process.

“It is important the council receives initial feedback from the public before it firms up a final proposal for further consultation and submissions. After this, the council will finalise the proposal and the outcome will be used for the next Local Government triennial election October 2019.”

Information for residents on the current proposals and how to submit feedback will be available on the council’s website and an information pamphlet will be delivered to every household’s letterbox in the coming weeks.

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