Plans for city revealed today

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 9

Plans for city revealed today

Christchurch councils will find out this evening what the Local Government Commission has planned for the city.

The commission’s chairman, Mr Brian Elwood, will announce the proposal for the restructuring of the city at a meeting of councils and the news media this evening. The proposal will be for either a two-city Christchurch or a single enlarged city. Whatever the proposal, it will make no immediate difference to the city. It can still be rejected by 50 per cent of the ratepayers affected by the amalgamation, and even if un-

challenged could not be in place before the 1989 local body elections. Mr Elwood has made it clear that only a one-city or two-city proposal would be considered by the commission. The commission decided its proposal in Wellington last week.

If the four commissioners — the fifth, Cr Vicki Buck, has taken no part in the Christchurch discussion — have opted for a two-council arrangement it seems likely to be Waimairi and Riccarton in one council; and the City and Heathcote in another.

A single large city could take in all four under one

council. In spite of suggestions that urban Paparua be included in the reshuffle, it is more likely that the commission has heeded that council’s wish to be left alone. The commission has also presumably taken note of surveys in Waimairi, Heathcote, and Riccarton in which residents voted for the status quo.

Anyone expecting sweeping changes is probably wide of the mark. It seems more likely that the commission has amalgamated existing areas rather than created new ones.

Christchurch is the first city to learn its fate by way of an announcement by the commission’s chairman.

It is the first metropolitan city to have a proposal put to it by the commission. Voluntary arrangements in the North Island have been given the blessing of the commission, although an arrangement agreed by councils will not necessarily get commission approval.

A meeting in west Auckland yesterday discussed the amalgamation of the Mount Wellington, Papatoetoe, and Otahuhu councils. The three coun-

cils had opted to merge, but the commission feels the amalgamation should include only Mount Wellington and Otahuhu.

Other councils have been, approached by the commission with suggestions of possible mergers, such as Newmarket with Auckland City. In Canterbury, the Rangiora ' Borough and District councils have before them a proposal to amalgamate. Objections will close next month. Whatever news Mr Elwood brings to Christchurch this evening, the commission’s decision is unlikely to please all the councils or all residents.