Council is required by law to hold a Representation Review every six years. The last one was undertaken in 2018. Its purpose is to ensure that Council’s representative arrangements give fair and effective representation to identified communities of interest in the district.

The review considers the make-up of Council – how many Councillors there are, whether they are elected by wards (such as currently) or by the entire district at large, and whether there are community boards. If there are wards and/or community boards, their boundaries, names and number of elected members need to be set or reviewed as well.

Ultimately, the Representation Review is about how your local election vote translates into who sits around the Council or Community Board table making decisions on your behalf.

On 7^th May 2024, Council resolved to consult with the community on a proposed change to the current arrangements. Council is proposing to maintain most of the current arrangements, but to change, broadly, three areas – Kakahu, Orari and Rangitata Island – from being in the Geraldine Ward to being in the Pleasant Point-Temuka Ward – see the dark blue highlighting on the map below. These three areas would became part of the Temuka or Pleasant Community Board areas as well, instead of the Geraldine Community Board area.

• Detailed Map of Initial Proposal Option (pdf, 1.7 MB updated 24-May-2024)

Note: population numbers have been updated since this map was generated.

This has the net effect of moving approximately 650 people from one ward to another, which impacts who they could vote for in a local body election and who would represent them. Each household in the affected area will be contacted directly to advise of the proposed changes and invite their feedback.

What isn’t proposed to change is the three ward system (Timaru, Pleasant Point-Temuka, and Geraldine), the number of elected members in total and per ward, the three Community Boards, or number of Community Board members per board.

If the proposed change occurs

• and you are enrolled to vote at an affected address (that moves from the Geraldine Ward to the Pleasant Point-Temuka Ward): the direct impact will be that who you can vote for at local elections will change (i.e. from voting for the Geraldine Ward candidates, to voting for the Pleasant Point-Temuka candidates), and your "local" Councillor/s would be different.
• and you are enrolled to vote at a non-affected address (that does not move wards): there is no direct impact on you.

Regardless of how the ward boundaries are drawn and who you can vote for, you can still contact any Councillor to discuss matters of interest or concern to you. Councillors are required to govern and make decisions in the best interest of the district as a whole (not the particular ward that elected them).

The Representation Review is political: it touches on the number of Councillors, how they are elected, Community Boards, etc. As such, there is no impact on Council's operations, e.g. how Council activities are provided to you, such as roading or water schemes.

If the proposed change occurs, there may be a minimal change in rates for affected properties. Rates are complex and determined by many factors (most notably land value, location, and type e.g. residential or commercial). A small number of these factors are impacted by the ward that the rateable unit is located in. Because of this complexity, we cannot provide information specific to individual properties. However, average rates data is available: the image below shows sample rates for average properties in different parts of the district (as from the Long Term Plan 2024-34 Consultation Document).

The only definite change for the rates for affected properties is that they would pay $1 less per year in their rates for the Community Board targeted rate (Geraldine Community Board is currently $7 per rateable unit per year, whereas the Temuka and Pleasant Point Community Boards are currently $6 per rateable unit per year).

There may be a change in how the Community Boards deliver the Strategic Plans that they have been working on. For example, Orari is currently factored into the Geraldine Community Board Strategic Plan; the Temuka Community Board would need to consider how to incorporate Orari into their Strategic Plan if the proposed change occurred.

There is no evidence that the movement of ward boundaries impacts school zoning (this is set by separate legislation by schools and considers different factors to Representation Reviews) or property prices.

The short answer: because population shifts since the last Representation Review mean that the voting power of different parts of the district are no longer within legal thresholds.

The longer answer: By law the number of residents per Councillor in each ward needs to be the same, +/- 10%, to ensure that the vote of each voter in each ward carries roughly the same weight. In 2018, when the last Representation Review was conducted, the figures looked like this, noting that all wards were within the +/- 10% allowance.

Demographic changes over the last six years have moved the Geraldine Ward outside the +/- 10% threshold; it is now under-represented relative to the Timaru and Pleasant Point-Temuka Wards. The 2018 figures now look like:

Note: population statistics provided by Statistics New Zealand, but have been calculated differently to the statistics used in the Public Notice.

Two things can influence these numbers: change the number of elected members per ward, or move the boundaries. Councillors believe that, on balance, the current number of elected members (themselves) is about right to allow the district to be effectively represented. Therefore, moving the ward boundaries slightly to shift some people from the Geraldine Ward into the Pleasant Point-Temuka Ward to better balance the voting power of the three wards, was considered to be the preferred approach.

If Councillors and/or submitters believe that the current arrangements, or an alternative set of arrangements where one or more wards were outside the +/-10% threshold, were necessary to give effective representation to certain areas of the district, the Local Government Commission would make the final decision.

By law, being outside the +/-10% threshold is only permitted to give representation to communities deemed as islands or isolated, or to prevent distinct communities being artificially divided or united.

Councillors would indicate this through how they resolve the Final Proposal. Submitters could refer this to the Local Government Commission by lodging an Appeal (or if applicable, an Objection) to the Final Proposal.

Council has held three workshops since the second half of 2023, and also engaged with each of the Community Boards.

Information about the workshops are here:

8th August 2023

• TDC - Representation Review Workshop 8 August 2023 (pdf, 583.5 KB updated 24-May-2024)

28th November 2023 Council Work Shop and Community Boards Workshop

12th March Representative workshop

The Initial Proposal was adopted at the Council meeting on 7^th May 2023 (item 9.8 of the agenda)

Videos of the workshops and Council meetings are available here on Our YouTube Channel

Council is consulting on this Initial Proposal until 5pm, 7^th July 2024. We really want the residents of the Timaru District to tell us their views, so please do make a submission. In particular, tell us how you think you can be best represented at the Council and Community Board table, whether that is under the existing or proposed arrangements, or something else entirely.

There will be a Hearing in July (date yet to be set) for Councillors to hear verbally from anyone who wants to speak to their written submission.

Council will then consider all written and oral submissions, and factor these into making a Final Proposal. This is currently scheduled for the 13^th August 2024 Council meeting, but is subject to change.

There is a period for Appeals and Objections after the Final Proposal. Appeals can only be made by someone who submitted on the Initial Proposal Consultation, and Objections can be made by anyone but only if Council makes a change between the Initial and Final Proposals.

If any appeals or objections are received, or the Final Proposal has any ward outside the +/- 10% threshold, then the Local Government Commission will make the final decision about the representation arrangements.

You can contact Brendan Madley (email brendan.madley@timdc.govt.nz or call 03 687 7200) to discuss the Representation Review and get further information