Our Initial Proposal is now open for submissions meaning you can have your say on whether you agree or do not agree with what we are proposing. The easiest way to do that is to fill in the feedback form at the bottom of the project page and, if you would like to, come in to present in person. Council will then consider all the submissions received and determine if any changes need to be made to the proposal.

Once the proposal has been updated and finalised (if required) then it will publicly notified as a Final Proposal. If the final proposal does not change, those who submitted on it can appeal. If Council changes the final proposal, anyone can object. These appeals or objections are forwarded to the Local Government Commission, who will make the final decision on Council’s arrangements.

The changes to representation arrangements will come into effect for the local body elections next year. If there are changes to your ward boundaries, this means you will be voting in line with the new boundaries in the 2025 election.

It may be surprising, but the number of councillors doesn’t have a significant impact on rates.

Remuneration for elected members (Mayor, councillors and community board members) is funded from district rates. However, these amounts are set by a government agency, the Remuneration Authority (RA).

In the case of Councillors, the RA set a fixed pool of funds which is divided between the number of elected members, according to a Council decision. This means if we had a greater number of councillors each would be paid less, and vice versa, but the total remuneration would not change.

Community boards are funded by a targeted rate paid by residents living within the respective board’s area. This includes paying for remuneration for Board Members which is also set by the Remuneration Authority.

The Methven Community Board rate funds the activities the Board looks after, such as remuneration and Methven Community Pool. This budget is set through the LTP and reviewed annually, so may vary from year to year.

Unlike the pay for Councillors, the pay for community Board Members is set by the Remuneration Authority at a rate per member rather than set as a pool of money to be divided by the number of members. The 2023/24 remuneration for a Methven Community Board member was set by the RA at $2,888. Remuneration for Community Board members is funded from the Methven Community Board rate.

While reducing the number of members will mean a slightly lower cost to be rated for, what is paid for this rate may also reduce if the Methven Community Board boundary is extended, as more people will be paying for the same total amount.

Council thinks that the Methven Community Board boundary needs to be extended to include recent growth and to cover properties that are considered to receive a benefit from the Board’s activities. Council considers that the proposed total membership of six alongside the boundary extension still provides for fair and effective representation.

We also consider that a reduced number of elected positions will promote contested elections and good democracy and prevent the potential need for costly by-elections (for example, two of the last four elections have resulted in a by-election due to there not being enough candidates).

The Local Electoral Act provides different options for councils to elect their councillors. These include the following:

• Wards (our current system) – where you only vote for candidates standing in your ward
• At large (district wide) – meaning councillors are elected across the district, you are able to vote for all candidates and are not restricted to the candidates representing a ward.
• A mixed system – where some councillors are elected at large and others through the ward system.

The Mayor is always elected through a district wide vote.

No matter what system is used to elect a councillor, councillors always represent the entire district.

While the Ashburton District does not meet the threshold for establishing a Māori ward, there are alternative options for councils to have Māori represented at a governance level - like advisory committees or other iwi partnership models. We plan to discuss these options with Manawhenua. As no Māori ward has been established, this discussion will be outside of the scope of this representation review.

In September 2023, Council decided to retain the First Past the Post (FPP) electoral system for the 2025 local election.

Fair representation requires that each elected member represents roughly the same number of people. This helps to ensure that all votes are approximately of equal value.

For these calculations, we have used the estimated population for 2023 provided by Statistics NZ. This has been based off the 2018 Census. These were suggested by the Local Government Commission as the best statistics to use for the representation review, as the results from the 2023 Census are not yet available.

Effective representation considers the number of councillors in relation to things like the size and geography of the area and the diversity of its people. This includes the ease of access to your elected members and how well those elected members are able to represent the diverse range of people and interests in their area.

One of the goals of a representation review is to achieve ‘effective representation’, which means that wards should be based on communities of interest – that is areas that people identify with and relate to.

Legislation does not define what a community of interest is, but the concept includes things like:

• people feeling a collective sense of identity and belonging to the area;
• people using the same services, like schools, pools, roading networks;
• councillors being able to effectively represent the interests of the area.

When deciding the size of wards and their boundaries, ideally communities of interest should not be split and disparate communities of interest should not be joined together in one ward.

Community Boards play a role in representing and advocating for the interests of their local area and make decisions on behalf of the communities they represent. They are expected to create community plans feeding in local issues and they need to advocate for the local voice.

They are neither a local authority or a committee, but they can make submissions on Council policies and decisions, and are an important part of providing information from Council back to the community.

Community Boards play a role in representing and advocating for the interests of their local area and make decisions on behalf of the communities they represent. They are expected to create community plans feeding in local issues and they need to advocate for the local voice.