The voice of the public looks set to stay in a revamp of Canterbury’s local water committees.
A public advisory group is being proposed to provide the community element when the 10 water zone committees are replaced with a new model.
The new leadership groups were proposed to only consist of Environment Canterbury, district council, and Rūnanga representatives.
During an ECan workshop in March, the Ashburton District Council made it clear it still sees community representation as a requirement in any new model.
Now, the Ashburton Water Zone Committee has come up with a solution that received the backing of the councillors at the April 16 council meeting.
Committee chairperson Bill Thomas proposed establishing a Mid Canterbury Community Advisory Group to be the “fourth leg of the stool”.
“We think it’s a good solution for the community and it was encouraging to get the unanimous support of the councillors,” Thomas told Local Democracy Reporting.
He said the committee had been encouraged by the council’s stance to continue community representation and had canvassed the community for ideas.
They landed on forming an advisory group.
Thomas said it would feature members from a wide variety of different interest groups – “the people on the ground who know how things work”.
The Canterbury Mayoral Forum will decide the final set up in May.
Thomas told the councillors the work on a purpose for the group was already done, pointing to the Mid Canterbury vision statement prepared by feedback from around 600 locals as part of ECan’s regional policy statement consultation in 2023.
“It covers everything that happens in Mid Canterbury, what’s important to Mid Canterbury, and has had buy-in from the community.”
The advisory group would act as a liaison for local concerns and perspectives, with the chairperson and one other remember representing the group on the local leadership group.
Thomas said the advisory group members would be “volunteers using their time” and knowledge, and the only funding element would be for the chairperson and one member to sit on the leadership group.
“The funding would be less than what they already fund for the zone committee”.
The pitch found support from the district councillors, who approved it unanimously as part of its feedback to the mayoral forum.
Chief executive Hamish Riach said he didn’t see the feedback as “needing to persuade ECan as to what the Mid Canterbury solution is”.
He predicts the Mayoral Forum will adopt a solution, but it will be up to each council to establish its leadership group.
The council also suggested a review of the new structure after 18 months.
By Jonathan Leask
