Ashburton is stuck in the middle as Environment Canterbury proposes a reshuffle of its constituency boundaries.
ECan is proposing to shift the Ashburton District to join the South Canterbury constituency as part of its representation review.
The change will determine who Ashburton residents can vote for in the regional council elections.
Councillors were presented with two options at the regional council meeting on Wednesday.
The regional council could keep the status quo with Ashburton part of a Mid Canterbury constituency with the Selwyn District, having two councillors.
The other option would move Ashburton to the South Canterbury constituency, with two councillors across the five districts, and leave Selwyn District as a constituency on its own, which councillors were advised provided better alignments around population ratios and legislative requirements.
The second option will go out for consultation as the preferred proposal, after being selected by a narrow 9-7 vote.
The four councillors from the two impacted constituencies, South Canterbury and Mid Canterbury, all voted against it.
The supporters were six of the eight Christchurch councillors, the two Ngāi Tahu representatives, and North Canterbury’s Grant Edge.
Ngai Tahi councillor Nuk Korako initially indicated his support for the status quo, but when it came time to vote, he supported the change after a long pause.
Edge said Selwyn District Council’s support of the change was among the reasons for his vote.
But, South Canterbury councillor Nick Ward said the Ashburton District Council and South Canterbury councils did not support the change.
Councillor Ian Mackenzie called for councillors to think about the constituencies in terms of scale, not just population.
He also noted that there was no compelling difference since the last review and “at this stage, nothing needs to change”.
John Sunckell said was concerned about making changes based on future population growth and the proposed change was trading one set of inequities for another, which “doesn’t serve democracy”.
Peter Scott reminded councillors he “can’t ride around my constituency on my bike like some can”, with some 18,000sqm in the South Canterbury region.
The council report outlined that in the preliminary engagement, the Ashburton District Council did not support any of the options presented on the basis that none of them would guarantee effective or fair representation for the district.
The South Canterbury councils supported the status quo while Selwyn supported becoming its own constituency.
Nine of the councillors felt shifting Ashburton to the southern constituency struck a fairer balance.
That will now be in the hands of the public with ECan’s initial representation proposal going out for public consultation in August.
Meanwhile, the Ashburton District Council is completing its own representation review.
It is proposing three main changes to the current arrangements.
The changes are widening ward boundaries to cater for growth and reducing the number of Methven Community Board members from five to four.
Democracy and engagement general manager Toni Durham said the council had received 13 submissions for the second stage of the representation review, with one person wishing to speak to their submission.
A hearing is scheduled for August 7.
By Jonathan Leask
