Riccarton favours two-tier system

Press, 30 September 1986, Page 7

Riccarton favours two-tier system

If metropolitan Christchurch becomes one city, the Riccarton Borough Council wants a two-tier system with district community councils. The council held a special meeting last eveing to discuss recent amalgamation talks with other local bodies and the Local Government Commission’s conciliator, Mr Doug Pearson. The council resolved that it was still unanimously opposed to “forced amalgamation.” However, the Mayor of Riccarton, Mr Richard Harrington, said the council would continue with conciliation talks to protect Riccarton ratepayers’ interests.

“Mr Pearson made the point that this is the last opportunity that we have to influence the commission on the proposed one city,” he said. Cr Brian Harman said the ratepayers would still have the right to demand a poll on the one-city proposal, no matter what happened. “If we were to make a concerted effort to come forward with a ‘fall-back’ proposition ... we might be left with something better by having a onecity with district community councils, than just a one-city with wards.” The Riccarton proposal, outlined in a letter to Mr Pearson, is for district community councils with

a high degree of autonomy. The councils would have a councillor-to-citi-zen ratio of 1:1500, meaning there would be 15 district community councils. The councils would be based on “local communities” and would each have several wards. Mr Harrington said the question of representation was a difficult one. Some local authorities thought one councillor for every 1500 ratepayers was too many. “We feel that representation is one of the most important things to discuss,” he said. The next conciliation meeting will be held on October 13 and 14.